Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "psycho"

Psycho by Robert Bloch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The classic horror story of quiet, reserved motel owner Norman Bates and his reclusive, domineering mother.

Bates Motel, isolated since a new road directed traffic away from it, hosts few guests. After a spur-of-the-moment decision to steal from her employer, Mary Crane takes a wrong turning on the way to meet with her fiancé, Sam Loomis. It is late and she decides to take a room at the secluded motel and continue on her journey the following morning. She meets Norman and gratefully accepts his invitation to eat with him at the house he shares with Mother before retiring to her room for the night. But she hasn’t accounted for the extent of Mother’s possessiveness.

Lila Crane arrives at Sam Loomis’ hardware store in search of her sister. A detective hired by Mary’s employer is also on her trail, the three of them determined to track Mary’s whereabouts and clear up the business of the theft. The trail leads them to Bates Motel. But Norman is very protective of Mother and will do what is necessary to protect her, just as she will do what is necessary to protect her troubled son.

Bloch wields the suspense like a knife, the novel tightly plotted as if woven by a taxidermist’s needle. The iconic scenes are all here – Norman’s voyeurism through the hole behind the picture in his office; the car slowly sinking into the swamp; the sudden graphic violence of the shower scene. This is as much a psychological thriller as it is a horror story, building in intensity from its opening on a dark, stormy night to its revelatory climax.

The 1959 novel has a remarkable legacy. Adapted as Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece ‘Psycho’ in 1960, it was not only controversial but a major success. Bloch himself would write two sequels – ‘Psycho II’ (1982) and ‘Psycho House’ (1990); and Chet Williamson would later take up the mantle with ‘Psycho: Sanitarium’ (2016). The film adaptation is widely regarded to be the grandfather of the slasher sub-genre and was one of the major influences for John Carpenter’s 1978 ‘Halloween’. The slasher popularity ignited by ‘Halloween’ led to ‘Psycho’ developing its own franchise, with the theatrical sequels ‘Psycho II’ (1983) and ‘Psycho III’ (1986), both unrelated to Bloch’s novels; the TV spin-off pilot ‘Bates Motel’ (1987) and TV movie sequel ‘Psycho IV: The Beginning’(1990); followed by theatrical remake ‘Psycho’ in 1998. The superlative ‘Bates Motel’ (2013-17) explored the history and relationship between Norman and his mother, Norma.

Norman Bates’ legacy has been influenced by real-life horrors. Two years before the novel’s release, Ed Gein was arrested for two brutal murders. Bloch was already working on his novel and it would be completed before the full story of the body-snatching and murders emerged, which included the discovery of clothing made of human skin and theories of Gein’s unhealthy obsession with his controlling mother. Bloch commented at the time how remarkable it was that his fiction corresponded to reality, and Gein subsequently earnt a reference in the novel. His crimes would go on to influence Tobe Hooper’s 1974 ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (yet another precursor to the slasher sub-genre) and Thomas Harris’ classic 1988 novel ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, itself adapted into a successful film in 1991. Rob Zombie (who would later direct the remake of ‘Halloween’ and its sequel), was also influenced by Gein’s crimes in making his ‘Firefly’ series – ‘House of 1000 Corpses’, ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ and ‘3 From Hell’.

Dripping in suspense, ‘Psycho’ is a twisted horror thriller that deserves its classic status, leaving you to question those around you and wonder what may really lurk beneath the surface and in the darkest recesses of their minds.



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