Psycho (1960) is a psychological, horror, thriller and suspense movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock which considered as one of his greatest. With the release of the movie, it became an instant hit which created a groundbreaking in the conventional horror movie genre. This movie is based on the book "Psycho" written by Robert Bloch in 1959 which is said to be inspired by a true event. It gave an inspiration for a series of horror / slasher movies like Silence of Lambs (1991), Halloween (1978), Texas Chain-Saw Massacre (1974) etc. Psycho (1960) is a perfect blend of personal behaviorism, sexuality and violence.Even though it was released more than 60 years ago, it is considered as a masterpiece in the cinema industry.

The main story initially revolves around a character named Marion Crane who works as a secretary for a real estate agency.Movie proceeds as Marion Crane flees from the workplace with $40,000 which belongs to a client and is supposed to deposit in the bank.While fleeing, due to heavy rainfall she checks in to a motel named "Bates motel" , owned by Norman Bates who becomes the main antagonist of the latter part of the movie. He invites her to a dinner in his private place since it is difficult to find a diner at that moment. During the dinner chitchat with him , Marion gets to know him and finds out that he has a mentally unstable mother with him.After the dinner, Marion goes back to her room claiming that she needs to leave early in the morning.Later on,she gets murdered in the shower by a serial killer and gets dumped in to swamp along with her car by Norman Bates which later discovers that the serial killer is Norman Bates. Few days later, Marion's sister and Marion's boyfriend come looking for a her in the Bates motel and discovers that Norman Bates may have something related to her disappearance . They hire a private investigator named "Arbogast" and later Norman Bates kills him too. Finally, Norman Bates gets incarcerated in to mental asylum for his murders since police discovers that he suffers from multiple personality disorder.

The execution of the plot is marvelous, compared with the other horror movies or movies from other genre existed at that time.Specially, Psycho movie story is not centered into a single character, it has been dispersed into many characters through out the movie.Mainly, initial part of the movie focuses on the life of the Marion Crane and how the environment affected on her to do her crime of theft. After meeting with Norman Bates, the story focuses on the life of Norman Bates. It justifies the environment of Norman Bates which affects him to commit his murders. Next, story line shifts towards the lives of Marion's sister and Marion's boyfriend who investigates about Marion. At the end of the movie, all the stories comes together while keeping the audience in suspense to the end.

At the end of the movie, it says that Normal Bates suffers from the multiple personality disorder or split personality and crimes are not committed by the personality of Norman Bates but his mother's. But, story line has been written in such a way that audience think that there is a serial killer and killer is Norman Bates's mother. That was one of the main plot twists in the movie which was very rare for movies at that time.Also, considering about the initial stages of the movie, it mainly focuses on the theft committed by Marion Crane. However, later movie leads to a completely different story without any loopholes in the movie.

Psycho movie is famous for the shower murder scene which becomes a reference for many movies later.Specially, the music by Bernard Herrman which crafted for that scene (and also for the entire movie) was excellent. How the killer (Norman Bates) access to the bathroom while Marion is showering , how killer pulls the shower curtain and stabs Marion with knife has been captured in to the camera with great senses of cinematography while making a deep psychological scar in the minds of the audience. Specially my most favorite scene of the movie is the scene that focuses on the eye of the Marion.

Topics like multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia and other mental disorders were strange to the movies at that time, specially for horror movies. Most of the horror movies at that time were based on common horror topics like killers, inhuman characters like ghosts, demons etc. However, Psycho movie was able to bring complex topics like psychology or how psychological aspects of people can create real horror in the lives of people. Deviant characters like Norman Bates and how their behavior can commit crimes is an excellent portrayal in the movie. Later on , these unprecedented topics were widely discussed among people and got inspired in the later released movies for example Dressed to kill (1980) , Identity (2003) , Secret Window(2004) etc .

Topics like sexuality, murder, matricide were also not hot topics at that time in the movies. Nowadays, these topics are been portrayed consistently in the modern movies.Psycho movie may have given the inspiration to explore these topics and include in to movie genres as well.

It is clear that the Psycho movie made a great impact on the audience and also in to the entire cinema industry.It has passed the boundaries entitled to movies surpassing the topics which were censored to discuss at that time.It made a revolution in the horror movie genre and also in the entire movie industry.Specially movie lines like,

"We all go mad sometimes - Norman Bates"

made a great impact on the audience, which explains that anyone can be susceptible to do these kind of heinous crimes and we should take necessary measures to not to go beyond the limit.