Film Debates - Tumblr Posts

Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is notable for a number of reasons, one of these is the first use of the “man gone wrong” antagonist. Although this is a common and popular narrative device in many modern Horror films, such as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Michael Myers in Halloween, at the time Norman Bates was a revolutionary character as he would change the role of antagonists forever. Norman’s name was chosen simply because it would close to the word “Normal”.

Hitchcock was obsessed with the idea of verisimilitude throughout the filming of Psycho, he used television actors from his series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” rather than high profile actresses and actors, as he had done in films such as Vertigo (1958) and Rear Window (1954). The audience is encouraged to identify with Norman as soon as Marion leaves the narrative, the spectator follows Norman cleaning the mess and film critic Zizek argues that we identify with this as he undertakes cleaning jobs like the spectator.

Hitchcock’s innovation with the “man gone wrong” antagonist has changed horror films and furthermore, highlighted the horror of true life. Part of the attraction in horror films is that fact that, most of the time, the antagonist is caught and the spectator revels in the idea that the protagonists are safe. However, in real life this is rarely the case, numerous murderers and criminals are not caught and this was what the man gone wrong antagonist proves- it points out that serial killers/murderers/general criminals look like the everyman and we are living amongst them, just as Marion lived next door to Norman Bates.