This is, of course, a really scary movie. I don't care if it's something like 50 years old, after I watched it, I was afraid to be by myself. My cat made a sudden movement behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
The first third of the movie isn't really a horror/thriller. It's more of a crime caper. Marion (Janet Leigh) wants a new life, and is willing to steal $40,000 to do it. She's worried about being caught and the cops are on her tail. Unfortunately for her, after being caught in the rain, she went and drove into a completely different movie. I was trying to pinpoint when it stopped being Marion's crime caper story and started being Norman's (Anthony Perkins) horror story. It's during their conversation over sandwiches in his parlor. We follow Marion into the parlor, where we start of with a simple shot/reverse shot conversation.
It's kinda weird that they're medium shots instead of the normal medium close-ups, but it's cool. It gives a chance to see the symbolically important stuffed birds and shows that the trap that they've been talking about hasn't actually closed yet. We're still in Marion's story, where she's still free. Then we start talking about Norman's mother and the shots change.
Suddenly Norman is shot at a low angle and we can see that the creepy owl is watching his every move. He's surrounded by these birds. Nothing in his house is alive, not even his mother, but they all look alive and they are all watching.
We now get the more normal medium close-ups, but instead of just being the norm, they seem constricting. Now we are trapped in the motel and in Norman's mind.
The last moment of power we see Marion have is at the end of the conversation, when she says that she has a long drive back to Phoenix in the morning.
At this point Marion gives up her crime story to go and try to make things better. Sadly, this leaves room for Norman's story to completely take over. The fact that she's standing above Norman like that may also represent the power the women hold over him. Not that this helps Marion much. The birds are in her shot now, too, and they are looking mean.
Then Marion leaves, but this time without the audience, abandoning us for the first time and leaving us completely with Norman.
And that bird that was looking at Marion is now behind Norman's head, part of Norman's head, and the poor boy is nuts.
As creepy as I find him, I am kind of in love with Norman's character. He is bumbly and adorable! He's very sweet when he's not killing people. The fact that he kills people, though, is not really something you can get over. No dating serial killers is a personal rule of mine. Really, though, wouldn't you be a killer if you grew up in a creepy house like he did?
Shot from a low angle, the Bates house completely dominates the landscape and takes over the whole shot. While there was space around Marion and Norman during their conversation, there isn't any really here. The house exists, it's not nice, and it's full of crazy. That house is top to bottom nuts: Norman kept his mother on the top floor, in her old room. She's eventually put in the fruit cellar ('Cause she's fruity, she said so herself), making Norman insane to his very foundations. This is where she is eventually found by Marion's sister, Lila (Vera Miles). This results in one of the creepiest things ever.
Never mind that Mrs. Bates is a corpse, though that is pretty creepy, but the way that Lila shrieks and hits the light makes the shadows play on Mrs. Bates' face. The way it works with her eyeless sockets is that it makes it seem that there is something there and it's moving. Again, dead things are watching us when they really shouldn't be.
At this point, Norman becomes completely his mother (making it her story, instead of his, but it's still horror).
Then Norman is his mother and with the skull superimposed on his face, his mother is death. Every time I tried to close my eyes to go to sleep last night, I saw that image. It wasn't conducive to good dreams.
In conclusion: CREEPY.
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