And now part 2.  In which I admit that Psycho is worthy of general praise for being an overall classic and show how.  In the next part, I'll break down why, while it may be a classic, its far LESS original than most people might think in some areas.  Cited in this run:  AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, and Ransom Riggs's article in Mental Floss Magazine (Nov-Dec 2006)"Masterpieces:  Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho".  Enjoy......

The 1960s: Weak Female Protagonists
To claim that Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is unoriginal and uninspired is just as large a fallacy as claiming it is the only line that defined all movies that followed it. It is perfectly logical to present the argument that Psycho is a classic of horror in its own right. After all, a movie like Psycho is not dubbed the 18th best overall movie and most thrilling movie of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute for no reason.(AFI's 100Years...100 Movies, AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills) Psycho is best known for having one of the most effective "twist endings" in the history of film. It's also distinctive because it is one of the first mainstream horror movies to be promoted as having a female protagonist. However, what may be Psycho and Hitchcock's greatest legacy is the ability of the film and its director to create the maximum tension and suspense in the viewing public through techniques that would become horror staples, particularly in the slasher genre some claim it fostered. In particular, analysts examine the infamous 45 second shower scene as proof of this. Using a soundtrack meant to evoke the action of stabbing a victim, foreshadowing by showing a shadow entering the bathroom during the protagonist's shower, and camera angles throughout the montage showing the killer's, victim's, and "knife's" perspectives; Hitchcock is able to "create the impression of nudity and violence without actually showing a breast, a buttock, or a knife puncturing skin" (Riggs 25). To this day, the sequence is seen as one of the most effective and scariest sequences in the history of the genre.

While the "shower scene" is memorable, it alone does not make Psycho compelling. Without effective character development, cinematography, and direction, the movie would have probably fallen flat. Fortunately for the annals of film criticism and film history, Anthony Perkins's portrayal of Norman Bates, along with Hitchcock and cinematographer John L. Russell's movie-making style, serve to turn Psycho into a classic. Perkins's ability to present Norman Bates to the audience as a meek, sympathetic character trapped under the thumb of an overbearing "mother" makes it all the more likely that the viewers will be stunned by the truth about the character's deep psychological disturbances and murderous tendencies. After all, Bates would go on to become one of the most infamous killers in film history partially because of the fact that the mental faculties that could lead to such a series of actions were not yet fully understood at the time of Psycho's release, nor were they talked about very often in everyday conversation. Hitchcock understood the power and unexpectedness of Psycho's ending, as well as how different his villain character was from the norm, showing this by both adding characters that explained Perkins's psychoses and family background and driving the point those characters made home by "[cutting] to Norman in a holding cell, grinning madly with his mother's dead face superimposed over his own" (27). Through this method, Hitchcock is able to explain to the audience just what could cause the mind-blowing, shocking activities they just witnessed. Overall, Psycho as a whole, including its psychologically-layered plot/ending and Hitchcock's genius at directing, storytelling, and cinematography; definitely deserves to be remembered as a masterpiece of filmmaking. However, this does not by any means prove that Psycho is the full, complete, and sole genre shift it is sometimes seen as, particularly in an area that is seen by some as one of its hallmarks of originality: its female protagonist.