Film reviews

Psycho

Infamous for its shower scene, Psycho has been called ‘the first psychoanalytical thriller’. The sex and violence in the film were unlike anything previously seen in mainstream film. The film often features shadows, mirrors, windows and water. The shadows are present from the very first scene where the blinds make bars on Marion and Sam as they peer out the window. Initial reviews of the film were thoroughly mixed. 
 
While the film did not conclude satisfactory for many critics they did commend the cast’s performances as ‘fair’. The public loved the film, with lines stretching outside of theaters as people had to wait for the next showing. It broke box-office records in Japan, China and the rest of Asia, France, Britain, South America, the United States, and Canada, and was a moderate success in Australia for a brief period. It is one of the largest-grossing black-and-white films and helped make Hitchcock a multimillionaire and the third-largest shareholder in Universal. Psycho was, by a large margin, the top moneymaking film of Hitchcock's career, earning $11,200,000.