No time of the year is as connected to horror movies as fall. There’s something about the cooling temperatures and early evenings makes people desire that familiar adrenaline rush from feeling fear. This very fact is why franchises like “Scream” and “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” are so well-known: there’s just something special about watching films for the sole purpose of being scared.
While bingeing iconic scary movies this month, it’s important to remember how they came to be – more specifically, the film that started it all: “Psycho”. When the movie came out in 1960, it took America by storm. The unsettling plot, provocative women, and the terror grounded in reality absolutely horrified audiences – which is exactly what director Alfred Hitchcock intended. (Note: This article will contain spoilers for “Psycho.”)
The film begins as Marion Crane (the leading lady, played by Janet Leigh) is in a relationship with a man going through a divorce. Since this is so frowned upon, she knows that the only way they can be happy together is if they run away. However, they need money, something the couple did not have. So Marion does the only logical thing: she embezzles money from the bank she works at. While on the run with the money, she stops to rest at the Bates’ Motel. There, she meets Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins), the sole-employee of the building; the only other person there is Norman’s mother, Mrs. Bates, who is described as temperamental and mentally unstable.
That night, while in the shower, Marion is brutally stabbed to death by Mrs. Bates. When Norman stumbles in on the corpse, his mother has already fled the scene. The disappearance of Marion concerns her sister and boyfriend, causing the two to go out in search of her. The main question they have is this: who killed Marion? The true answer might not be what you expect. This is the setup for the rest of the movie. If it sounds intriguing, watch it, please.
“Psycho” completely altered the horror cinema in three main ways. Without it, many sub-genres of scary films would’ve stayed bland and monotonous.
Slasher Flicks
Starting off: the slasher flick – a film where people (more often than not, young women) are brutally killed by knives. How charming.
Even though slasher flicks seem to have been around forever, their origin began in 1960. That’s right, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” was the beginning of one of the most popular horror subgenres to ever exist. Before June 16, 1960, the only type of horror films were known as “Monster Movies.” “Creature From the Black Lagoon” and “Them!” were the scariest movies of the time – yet, by today’s standards, common action films contain double the amount of suspense and gore.
While introducing the slasher subgenre, “Psycho” also produced the first human killer, Norman Bates. Never before had a person been the one who brutally murdered innocent people. Fear of the unknown “Other” had been the driving force of any horror movie since the beginning of time, but the “Other” was always a non-human creature. Instead of a vampire or an alien blob, “Psycho” presented the audience with a different kind of monster – a man with attachment issues to his mother and severe mental health problems. Although, to be fair, the reason why Norman Bates is so terrifying isn’t because of his strange relationship with his mother; it’s really the fact that he didn’t seem unstable at first. When the audience first meets Norman, they know he runs an old motel and lives in an ominous house with a seemingly insane mom, but that’s it. At certain times, he’s almost charismatic. Eventually, viewers might even begin to feel bad for him, as his apparently psychotic mother goes on a killing rampage, bludgeoning every woman that grabs the attention of her son. This storyline led to the first appearance of what is now one of the most popular (some might claim overused) tropes of all time in horror cinema: “She was really dead all along!”
Yes, it’s true. Norman’s mother was actually dead the entire time, meaning that only one person could have been the crazy killer: Norman. This plot twist is just one of the incredibly common tropes now seen in the slasher subgenre. Others common tropes include: scantily clothed (or just naked) woman getting murdered while in a, more or less, seductive position, and the killer is somehow too slow to actually catch a runaway victim, but just fast enough to constantly be right behind them.
Both of these are iconic tropes that can be found in any average slasher movie. Take “Scream” and “Halloween,” for example. Both include a chase scene, and the women who are killed are all either scantily clad (in “Halloween,” two of the female victims were topless) or simply left in suggestive positions (one victim in “Scream” was completely bent over when she died and was stuck like that until her body was found). “Scream” also contained a plot twist pertaining to the killer’s true identity. These tropes may now seem overused and too predictable, but at their start, they were truly genius. Without them, many of these films wouldn’t have been thought of. “Scream” is literally meant to be a movie that plays upon every common trope in slashers. So, even though they are ever abundant now, it is necessary to appreciate where they originated from, so current movie directors can take note and create new tropes that will also be overdone in about twenty years.
Slasher antagonists, once again, are (almost always) human. They are “The Slashers.” Take Ghostface, Michael Myers, and Leatherface. These are all crazed, bloodthirsty humans who cause mass destruction to those around them. This might not sound like the set up to a wholesome, sweet film; which is good, because it’s not. However, just because slashers are not synonymous with Hallmark Christmas Specials, they can still create the same atmosphere of bonding. Again, the atmosphere is also meant to be filled with fear and anxiety, but that doesn’t prevent the feeling of togetherness that one can get from watching a movie with the ones they love.
“I like horror movies a lot ‘cause that’s how me and my mom kind of bond,” said Madison Forman, a freshman at Huntington Beach High School (HBHS). “We both love horror movies, so we both sit down and watch them together. But, like I said, I love the thrill of being scared and just watching them, it’s so fun.”
Having a shared interest, no matter what it is, allows people to bond, which is wonderful. If “Psycho” hadn’t been created, this violent, trope-filled subgenre wouldn’t have been introduced to the world – which is just robbing human civilization from the joys of an adrenaline rush caused by a pretend killer in a pretend world.
Psychological V.S. Gore
Alfred Hitchcock’s film created a fork in the road for horror cinema: the path of psychological thrillers, and the path of gorefests.
Psychological thrillers can be simply described as movies that are meant to play with the viewer’s mind. Crazy plot twists, cryptic messages, and intense internal conflicts that lead to suspense are all attributes of an average psychological thriller. Think, “The Silence of the Lambs.” Of course, this movie does contain quite a bit of graphic violence, but it is not the whole plot. A good way of telling the difference between a psychological thriller and a gorefest is by thinking about the actual story. If the movie contains a planned plot – thought-out character development, interesting dialogue, and both internal and external conflicts – the chances are that it’s a psychological thriller. If the movie can be described with HBHS freshman Hazel Armelin’s words:
“Aghhh! Big guy; chainsaw!”
Chances are it’s a gorefest film.
Now, gorefests are not “bad.” They are simply notorious for not having a detailed plot (or one at all). Truly, it’s a film where a bunch of people are getting chased and killed by something scary. “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” is a fantastic example of this, as the entire plot of the movie is quite literally “big guy; chainsaw.” A group of teenagers end up stuck in the middle of nowhere, and a freak with a chainsaw attacks them. That’s it. That’s the movie. Sure, some other stuff happens, but it doesn’t really matter to the storyline. Honestly, nothing matters to the storyline – and that’s only because there is so little to work with. There are jump scares, tons of blood, and some fun torture scenes, but that’s all. Once again, this doesn’t make it an unenjoyable movie, just one without too much need for thinking. Many people prefer these films, as the excitement from seeing the intricate set and costume designs are just as satisfying as a consistent plotline.
Audrey Le, a sophomore at HBHS, said, “When I’m in private, I prefer gore 100% of the time because I just am fascinated by the way that they’re able to use VFX to animate such realistic destruction of bodies.”
Thankfully, no one has to pick their favorite type of horror movie. Both psychological thrillers and gorefest films can be cherished dearly, and nothing terrible will happen as a result. The horror genre is so much richer in content and is more inviting to new fans because of these two different subtypes of films. There is something for everyone, if one looks hard enough.
Women in Horror
In an unsurprising turn of events, women were not always portrayed positively in horror films. Thanks to the female characters in “Psycho” – more specifically, Marion Crane – the world of horror branched out from only viewing women as damsels in distress who needed saving, to viewing them as damsels in distress who were fun to watch. Lovely.
Marion Crane was another fork in the road for the horror genre (even though she was killed off within the first 47 minutes of her film). She created the two main types of women in horror: The “Girls Who Die” and the “Girls Who Live.”
The “Girls Who Die” are the women who are more promiscuous and risqué. Tatum Riley (played by Rose McGowan) from “Scream,” along with Annie Brackett (played by Nancy Kyes) and Lynda Van Der Klok (played by PJ Soles) from “Halloween,” are great depictions of the “Girls Who Die.” These characters are typically viewed as very physically attractive, but they’re not necessarily overly smart or kind. If these women do present any positive characteristics, it’s always in some relation to the main character (which is usually the “Girls Who Live”). Tatum Riley, for example, is a great friend to Sidney Prescott (the main character, played by Neve Campbell). She is compassionate and funny, but she’s only used as a plot device. If her death did not occur, she wouldn’t have been important at all to the story. The “Girls Who Die” exist purely to make the “Girls Who Live” look good. The women in this category are not innocent, and their untimely deaths almost serve as punishments for this fact.
The “Girls Who Live” are more commonly known as the “Final Girls.” Examples of this type of girl are Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster) from “The Silence of the Lambs” and Laurie Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) from “Halloween.” These women are smart, modest, and kind. They are meant to be a good example of how women should act. A great representation of this is Laurie Strode, who is a responsible student and a beloved babysitter. In comparison to her best friends, Annie Brackett and Lynda Van Der Klok, she is an angel. She’s responsible, wears modest clothing, and is considerate of others. Her friends are the exact opposite. The reason why the “Girls Who Live” actually survive is because they are “good people.” Even when they might have some added sarcasm and aren’t completely perfect, they still retain an apparent amount of innocence. They serve as a reminder to the audience that the women who act exactly how society expects deserve to live.
The portrayal of women in “Psycho” created only more tropes for slashers to follow. This has led to a stigma around certain horror movies, as some fans seem to allow these films to dictate their own perception of the world.
Armelin said, “I don’t think slasher films really affect anything but slasher films. Unless you have some weird, obsessed fan who kind of just takes it into the real world, y’know? I don’t think it affects other media, but I do think it could affect real world perceptions of people. ‘Cause it’s like, ‘Oh, I saw this movie and women were super dumb.’”
The thing is, these tropes can only be as harmful as they are allowed to be. As long as the audience understands the fact that, in reality, women are not simple plot devices, then everything should be swell. Should horror writers and directors take more care in their work to ensure that no possibly damaging agendas and tropes are pushed in their films? Absolutely. It’s already happening (sort of). Movies, such as “Pearl” and “Hereditary,” are already proving that stories containing women with real personalities and issues can be just as thrilling as a movie with a masked stranger chasing a bunch of screaming hot girls.
The Final Thought
In conclusion, “Psycho” is the horror movie that changed it all. Without Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, the scary movie genre would be dull. His creativity and bravery to push the boundaries of what was socially acceptable is something to be remembered for years to come. Thanks to “Psycho,” franchises like “Scream” are able to flourish; thanks to “Psycho” writers and directors have the confidence to create weird, off-putting films such as “The Human Centipede (First Sequence)” – not that it’s necessarily a phenomenal movie, but it’s nice that the director was comfortable to let his imagination run wild; thanks to “Psycho,” every audience member is able to find a thriller that caters to their unique taste.
In the words of Armelin: “There’s a place for everyone in horror.”
So, during the spookiest month of the year, make sure to remember the ultimate slasher movie, “Psycho.” Happy Halloween!
