Is PSYCHO a horror film? in The Psycho Ward Forum

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Is PSYCHO a horror film?

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Count Gamula

Is PSYCHO a horror film?

Lead

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Jan 5 05 1:21 AM

Burgomaster

I thought I'd kick off this new folder off with a question that was debated from time to time in the old CHFB location. Do you think of PSYCHO as a horror films or a suspensful crime drama?

I think it has more than enough spooky elements to qualify as horror and is the obvious forerunner to films like HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH.

Count Gamula

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TomWeaver999

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Apr 27 10 9:22 PM

Jamie Lee on Janet Leigh:

http://www.popeater.com/2...om-more/?ncid=webmaildl2

According to Jamie Lee, Janet was a control freak. It reminds me that when I interviewed her in her home, she snacked on crackers or cookies or something throughout the whole interview -- crunched and talked with food in her mouth. Not disgustingly at all, but (when you listened to the tape) you could tell she was munching from first answer to last. I allllways wondered whether she was making sure that it WAS going to be a print interview -- that the recording wouldn't be used elsewhere.

PoorIgnorantBeggar

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Apr 27 10 11:05 PM

Old dark house? Check.

Madman? Check.

Grisly murders? Check.

Possible supernatural happenings? Check.

Gruesome plot twist? Check.

I also have two questions to people who deny the film's status as horror: If this had been directed by someone who wasn't an "A" director like Hitchcock, would you question it's status as horror at all? Had say, Boris Karloff played Norman Bates would you still question it's status as a horror film?

I personally have no patience with people who screw around with genres to avoid the horror label. When Spielberg tried reclassifying his horror films as "thrillers", when he had no problem with the label earlier on until he became "respectable", I made a vow to never see one of his films again if I could help it.

It's 2010 and I'm still glad to have kept that vow(well, okay, I did see that dinosaur movie, but that just confirmed for me that I was in the right.).

Cueva Muerte

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Apr 27 10 11:25 PM

<Spielberg tried reclassifying>

Agreed. PSYCHO & THE BIRDS not horror? JAWS & DUEL not horror? Who's kidding whom??? And what horror movie of the '50's doesn't have better alien costumes than CLOSE ENCOUNTERS? Even the Tabanga beats that one!

Bobtheman

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Apr 28 10 4:18 AM

http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/3708?page=1

Is Psycho a horror film thread

Cueva Muerte

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Apr 28 10 12:04 PM

Now if only some enterprising soul would do a skating show called "Psycho on Ice", we could start a new thread.

Bill Warren

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Apr 28 10 6:41 PM

http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/3708

CapnDunsel

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May 1 10 2:08 PM

Hitchcock said it was a comedy.

Rick

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May 1 10 2:44 PM

There are a couple of views on Hitchcock calling PSYCHO a black comedy. One is that, yes, that was his intention all along. The other is that he read some high-falutin' analysis of PSYCHO as comedy and belatedly adopted that opinion. Personally, I dunno.

Ted Newsom

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May 2 10 9:37 PM

Eh. The over-the-top psycho-crazy stuff, the Mother obsession, and the idea that you kill off the lead a third of the way in probably hit Hitchcock as darkly amusing. To think the people who made it ever really considered it a comedy is silly. (Hey, if it WAS a comedy, you wouldn't need the comedy relief, like Pat Hitchcock's character, the "Go out and eat it" line, etc.

ryanbrennan

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May 3 10 12:40 AM

For the original audiences of PSYCHO the humor could only have been evident upon subsequent viewings. I don't see any problem accepting the idea that Hitchcock, with his own dark sense of humor, would have enjoyed a script filled with turns of phrases, irony, and understatement that no one would get at all or at least until a second viewing. This doesn't make it a hee-haw comedy but I've seen it in theaters with audiences hip to the film who laughed knowingly throughout the movie. Of course, there's always the unintentional laugh near the end when somebody inevitably shouts out, "It's Ted Baxter!"

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Bill Warren

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May 3 10 9:44 AM

Ted Newsom wrote:
Eh. The over-the-top psycho-crazy stuff, the Mother obsession, and the idea that you kill off the lead a third of the way in probably hit Hitchcock as darkly amusing. To think the people who made it ever really considered it a comedy is silly. (Hey, if it WAS a comedy, you wouldn't need the comedy relief, like Pat Hitchcock's character, the "Go out and eat it" line, etc.

I agree; I don't think Hitchcock viewed it as a comedy; a lot of his movies, perhaps the majority, are often very funny even when they're otherwise serious, from THE 39 STEPS (and before) to NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
Bob Bloch told me that the first time he saw PSYCHO, in a screening at a studio, he was seated between Hitchcock and Janet Leigh--and she hadn't seen it yet, either. During the shower murder, Leigh screamed and clutched at Bob's arm. Hitchcock, with his hands folded across his tummy, was chuckling--not because he thought the murder was funny (it is manifestly NOT funny), but because Leigh was reacting exactly as he wanted audiences to.

CapnDunsel wrote:
Hitchcock said it was a comedy.

Where did he say this?

Last Edited By: Bill Warren May 3 10 9:46 AM. Edited 1 times.

TomWeaver999

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May 3 10 10:10 AM

Charles Bennett told me that he was thought PSYCHO was the work of a "sadistic son of a b****" and said that to Hitchcock's face, over drinks in Hitch's home. According to Bennett, Hitchcock just laughed and said he shot the shower scene for comedy, he wanted the audience to laugh. Bennett was appalled. But who knows if Hitchcock really meant it, or was just trying to get a rise out of Bennett. Some people *do* that kind of thing.

ryanbrennan

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May 4 10 12:52 AM

You must be kidding.

LCranston

How Old Were the Bates?

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Jan 2 11 11:35 PM

I was thinking about the PSYCHO films recently, and the discrepancies in facts between some of the sequels.

One thing I never really thought about was how old Mother Bates was supposed to have been when Normal killed her. In the first film she's given a crackling, very elderly sounding voice. She couldn't have been that old when she had Norman, could she? How old was Norman supposed to have been when she died?

Yes, I know the voice is creepy on purpose, but I just wondered what she was supposed to sound like.

"I live the unknown, I love the unknown... I AM the unknown."

Bobtheman

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Jan 3 11 12:23 AM

In Psycho IV, The Beginning, I believe it was established that Norman was a teenager when he killed his mother.

But I wouldn't call Mother in that film an elderly woman , contrasted to the sound of her voice in the first film.

In the first film, Mrs. Bates is also referred to as a "sick old woman" as well.

davlghry

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Jan 3 11 10:51 AM

TomWeaver999 wrote:
Charles Bennett told me that he was thought PSYCHO was the work of a "sadistic son of a b****" and said that to Hitchcock's face, over drinks in Hitch's home. According to Bennett, Hitchcock just laughed and said he shot the shower scene for comedy, he wanted the audience to laugh. Bennett was appalled. But who knows if Hitchcock really meant it, or was just trying to get a rise out of Bennett. Some people *do* that kind of thing.

I'm a big Hitchcock fan but there's no denying his films contain salacious and sadistic elements. As he got older and film boundaries widened, some of Hitchcock's more prurient interests came out, particularly a fascination with rape, culminating in the distressing sequence in FRENZY between Barry Foster and Barbara Leigh-Hunt.

hermanthegerm

Cinema of Cruelty

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Jan 3 11 12:03 PM

TomWeaver999 wrote:
Charles Bennett told me that he was thought PSYCHO was the work of a "sadistic son of a b****" and said that to Hitchcock's face, over drinks in Hitch's home. According to Bennett, Hitchcock just laughed and said he shot the shower scene for comedy, he wanted the audience to laugh. Bennett was appalled. But who knows if Hitchcock really meant it, or was just trying to get a rise out of Bennett. Some people *do* that kind of thing.

Hitchcock is one of those directors featured in Andre Bazin's The Cinema of Cruelty: From Bunuel to Hitchcock.

"There is a lot of money tied up in this film and people expect to hear a boom when something blows up, so I'll give them a boom."

George Lucas as quoted by Harlan Ellison's WATCHING

Last Edited By: hermanthegerm Jan 10 11 2:50 PM. Edited 1 times.

Godziwolf

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Jan 6 11 6:51 PM

LCranston wrote:
I was thinking about the PSYCHO films recently, and the discrepancies in facts between some of the sequels.

One thing I never really thought about was how old Mother Bates was supposed to have been when Normal killed her. In the first film she's given a crackling, very elderly sounding voice. She couldn't have been that old when she had Norman, could she? How old was Norman supposed to have been when she died?

Yes, I know the voice is creepy on purpose, but I just wondered what she was supposed to sound like.

Keep in mind, it's not necessarily her voice, merely Norman's damaged conception of her voice.

Steve R

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Jan 12 11 1:38 PM

Sure its a horror film.

And for those who were in the business the odd reference to some parts of it being funny

is not out of line. Stunts and bits of mayhem are often classed as gags.

However more than likely what is being quoted out of context is Hitch's personal quirky and dark

sense of humor. Read any good book on him and you'll find lots of bizarre quotes.

There's a story that during the Birds shoot he gave Tippi Hedron's daughter a gift

that when unwrapped revealed a doll that looked just like her mom, resting nicely in

a doll sized coffin. Funny? True? Sounds like Hitch though. You have to be careful

because writers like Donald Spoto have made a reputation out of these kinds of rumors.

Amusing and snide,yes. True? Who knows.

adamride

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Mar 11 11 5:48 AM

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Is PSYCHO a horror film?

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