Psycho (1960 film)

Psycho is usually short for psychopath.

Robert Bloch wrote a book named "Psycho" that was made into a black-and-white feature film in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie starred (in alphabetical order) John Gavin, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Simon Oakland, and Anthony Perkins. "Psycho" is more suspenseful than most horror movies. Although there is actually a minimum of gore in the movie, most viewers cower at the violent scenes, due to the suspense created by plotting and skillful film editing.

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The basic plot is the search for a missing woman (played by Janet Leigh). The first scene (risque in its day) shows Leigh and Gavin in their undies after a lunchtime "quickie". Next, Leigh steals money from her job, and goes on the lam. She is quite sleepy, so she misses a turnoff and eventually ends up on a nearly-deserted road. This road was originally the main route, so it has an old motel on it. Although it's seldom used, Perkins keeps the motel open. It's a change from taking care of his ill mother.

It turns out that Perkins' mother is not ill physically, but mentally. She slashes Leigh to bits in the famous shower scene. Perkins is horrified when he finds the corpse, but cleans up as if he has done this several times before. Meanwhile, Leigh's sister, Vera Miles, and boyfriend, John Gavin, are wondering where on earth Leigh is. They hire a private detective, Simon Oakland, to find her. He traces her to Perkins' hotel...and eventually meets the same fate as Janet Leigh. Miles and Gavin next go to the motel to follow up when the private detective disappears.

Eventually the audience learns that Perkins' mother is really dead and that he periodically assumes her personality; the dominant half of his personality is his re-imagining of his mother. The Perkins personality has no idea that his mother is dead, so has no knowledge of "her" crimes. The last scene shows Perkins totally taken over by his "mother."