10 Days to Halloween - Psycho (1960) - 25th October 2012

Welcome back to '10 Days to Halloween'. Now I do apologise for this one being a bit late but yeah. Let's talk about a film which started and defines to slasher genre, that being 1960's Psycho.

Now Psycho is an incredibly strange one. I don't mean to spoil this film for anyone who hasn't watched it, but the lead actress dies in the first 10 minutes of this film. I mean Janet Leigh was on all of the promotional material for this film, from posters to trailers, and she is the woman who dies in the shower scene in the first 10 minutes... 10 minutes!

This would have come to a shock to many people who watch horror films. They completely threw convention out of the window with this one. Usually the lead actress would be seen in a horrible incident early in the film but would rise out of it and ultimately kill the killer. But, not in this film, no in this film she is brutally murdered at the start.

Leaving all that aside, Psycho has a great atmosphere, the iconic shower scene is shot from the eyes of the killer himself. Most shots of the killer himself are in a pseudo-silhouette style and there is a very shilling and creepy conveyance (if that's a word) whenever he is on screen.

Psycho defines the slasher genre. I mean it was pretty much the very first one. Now I wont speak more on this film because anything else that I say would either ruin the film entirely or just not make you want to watch. So go watch it now! I mean right now! Do it... I'll still be here.

Come back tomorrow when we are going to talk about Stephen King's The Shining.






                                                       All photos and video are from Shamley Productions