Psycho Fear Analysis

Before my first complete viewing of Psycho I had always heard from my parents and other people their age that Psycho was the scariest movie they had seen. I had always known about the famous shower scene and had thought it was a bit startling, but nothing that had me "quaking in my boots." I really don't think Psycho lived up to it's lofty reputation of a scary horror movie but I do see where the people who are saying this come from. For a movie to really scare me, it all has to be a part of the buildup to the climax of the action. Every component needs to grab and pull me in. The music slowly creeping up, slow camera pans and the constant feeling that something drastic could happen in a matter of seconds. Due to the advancements in cinema today, horror movies, in particular, are a lot different today than they were say 25 years ago. Psycho had the creeping crescendo of the high pitched violin and voyeuristic camera angles, but I really didn't find this movie frightening in the slightest. You could see the murder coming from a mile away. An innocent young woman in a sketchy hotel far from major civilization, I mean c'mon, that's a homicide waiting to happen. What scares me and probably a lot of other people is the fear of the unknown. How could you prepare for something that is completely foreign to you. One component that really makes a movie scary is a wildcard character who is unpredictable in every move they make. Norman Bates is a good example of one of those characters who the audience just wonders, what on earth is going through his mind right now and what is their next move
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