The Monster Among us in Psycho

        Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock, is unquestionably one of the foundational movies in cinema, especially horror. The mystery and repulsion surrounding the character of Norman Bates has entertained for decades. The character of Norman Bates just spawned a completely separate television serious because of this fascination.

          The story in Psycho starts out with the character of Marion Crane, who steals thousands of dollars and runs of to be with her boyfriend. On her way to see him, it rains and she is forced to stop at the Bates Motel, where Norman is the manager. He acts extremely nice and seems very nervous and shy. At this point you like the Norman, he seems innocent and almost child-like. Marion then gets murdered in the hotel shower by what is later thought to be Norman’s mother. As the story progresses and Marion’s sister and boyfriend look for Marion they slowly discover more and more about Norman. In the end, Norman’s psychopathic nature is revealed. He exists in two personalities, himself and his dead mother, who he perceives as jealous and psychotic. The scariest scene is in the end as you finally see him acting out his mother’s personality, saying that she wouldn’t hurt a fly. 

        The scariest part of Psycho is not the violence but the character of Norman Bates. He seems so harmless on the outside, hiding the fact that he is actually deeply disturbed. At first you do not want to believe that he would be capable of that kind of violence since he does seem so innocent. And part of the disturbing part of Norman is that the harmless part of him does exist and is not just a mask. But sometimes his mother takes over and he no longer is harmless. 

        While Noel Carroll would argue that the film is not really horror because it does not have a monster in a true sense, we have already discusses how this definition limits horror to an undesirable degree. For as we talked about, the scariest monsters are not necessarily Bigfoot or Godzilla but the monsters among us. A traditional monster is scary because it is unknown and general powerful, we cannot reason with it or come to understand it. This indeed is scary and what Carroll would argues is the basis for horror. 

        Norman Bates is a monster, but not in the sense that we are used to. To us he is a scarier monster because we implicitly trusted him in the beginning with Marion and he betrayed that trust. He is simultaneously human and inhuman, relatable and repulsive. As he tries to talk to Marion we like him and appreciate him but later when he shows no emotion about the deaths of the people he has killed we are scared because someone who was understandable and normal has become someone who we do not understand. 

         Another factor about why Norman is so scary is that we know he is possible. Most people do not believe things such as Bigfoot or Godzilla really exist or are even possible. People like Norman Bates do exist and live in our society. We may not want to accept this fact or think about it very much, but Psycho forces us to consider it. The whole movie, while not likely, is a possible scenario events which frightens to our core. Most horror films, when we watch them, we may be scared but we do not really believe in their possibility. But this movie presents a completely possible set of events which in my opinion makes it all that much more frightening. 

         Psycho clearly is a horror movie, but a different type of horror. Extremely focused on suspense, the film scares us not because it is a idealistic monster but because Norman Bates is a possible, hidden monster. There is no question that Norman Bates is monstrous but he fools us because that is not all of who he is. The frightening thing is that people like Norman exist and could be disguised among us and this is why Psycho stays with you and scares you.