Analysis Of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

Psycho (1960) is not only one of Hitchcock’s most notable films, but it’s one of the most notorious films of the 1960’s. The 60’s were a decade of change (especially in film). Similar to this decade, Psycho paved the way in terms of horror films, despite the fact that it doesn’t abide by the genre itself. Psycho defined, inspired, and changed the horror genre in the 1960’s through the use of sound, visuals, and narrative. This type of inspiration is apparent in horror films such as Blood Fest (1963), The Haunting (1963), and Night of the Living Dead (1968). Psycho set a precedence for horror films, which has helped to mould and shape which films we view as horror nowadays.
This visuals of Psycho not only sets up the atmosphere and narrative
Until the release of Psycho, horror movies would normally restore social order after it has been disrupted by a criminal, killer, monster, et cetera. This can be seen in many of the earlier horror films from 30’s and 40’s, such as Frankenstein, where the monster is vanquished after it is revealed that he intentionally drowned a little girl. Although, sometimes this monster would reappear in the sequel of the film, and would come back and disrupt restore the social order that was once instilled after their death. “Films such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, etc. ended with a perfect restoration of the social order, which had been disrupted by the apparition of the monster” (Quilis
In Night of the Living Dead, we get the idea of social order being restored, by having individuals exterminate hordes of flesh-eating zombies. The protagonist, Ben, is trapped inside the cellar after hordes of zombies start to break into the house. By morning, he is finally able to come out once all the zombies have fled. We start to believe that these men that have been killing the zombies will find Ben, so that even though all of the other characters have perished, Ben would be the one to