Psycho is financially, and arguably best, Hitchcock film. The films opening 40 minuites or so are actually one huge red herring, with the audience thinking that the story about the embezzled money, and the star of the film, Janet Leigh, going to be the most important parts of the film, when in actuality, the embezzlement story just sets the scene. Hitchcock was quite bold in killing Janet Leigh, who was a big star in the 50's and the poster girl for the film.
What is/was different about psycho was that the villlain was th main character, Norman Bate. The film has all kinds of twists, from the famous shower scene,
, The fact that the suspected killer, (Norman Bates mother) ws actually dead, and that the killer was in fact Norman with split personality disorder, and one of the first films to do this twist, with later films catching onto the trend, and including it in their films.
Suspense is excellently built up, with lots of slow downtime, and infrequent actions scene that come and go very quickly. That way they would shock the audiences with their arrival and finish before the audience can figure out entirely what's going on for maximum impact, such as the above shower scene, only lasting 2 and a half minutes.
Finally, a dark and mildly ambiguous ending leaves on a darker note.
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