Most of the movies before 1960 were not of the horror genre. Many people didn't like horror movies. In the year of 1960, we had a new generation with new and different wants and desires. Teenagers began flocking to movies about aliens and things that came out of bogs to terrorize the kissing couple who had parked by the bog in their car. Horror had finally found it's place among the teenagers of the era.

In 1960, my dad was a young teenager who was of no exception, and he thrived on the horror movies, and he begged my grandmother to take him to a brand new Hitchcock film, a classic horror movie called, "Psycho". She gave in, and snuck into bed with him after watching the film, (she was a single mother and was too afraid after the movie to sleep alone).

Norman Bates, (the monster of this film), never really frightened me as a young teenager. I think that's because by the time I came around, other movies had desensitized me to the real and true horror of this film. But when I saw this movie as an adult, it made my whole body tingle with anticipation of what would come next.

The shower scene is this movie is so terrifying that my grandmother, (who had seen this movie in 1960), never again took a shower unless she had a clear curtain. It made a great impression on her and on other people of the time. Janet Leigh, screaming in the shower, the knife slamming down towards her, created such an image in my grandmother that it stayed with her, and she never looked at a shower the same again. That is a true test of horror, when you can make a normal, and sensible, (my grandma was quite sensible), person fearful of a movie to the point that they remember it to their dying day.

This is a wonderful horror movie. Norman Bates is as clever as he is insane. He makes you shudder just to think about him. The way he "talks" to his dead mother, the way he fights with that inner struggle inside of himself to do the right thing, and the way his evil, (portrayed by his mother), always wins out is terrifying. If I had to chose the scariest character, if I had to pick the number one most frightening movie ever, Psycho would be my answer. If you haven't seen this movie, it is a must see. This movie is truly, "evil".

Learn more about this author, Catsy Jones.
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