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Psycho first came into the world as a literary novel in 1958. It would become Robert Bloch’s signature piece. It told the story of a young woman named Mary Crane who was given the ultimate chance at the American Dream by stealing money from work and marrying the man of her dreams. It also told of her untimely demise at the hands of Norman Bates, quiet and shy hotel proprietor.
The novel appealed to the public not only because of the suspense and horror of the story, but because the reader could easily identify with the characters. Mary-simply because everyone wants the American dream and will go to unreal lengths to achieve it at times. Norman-because everyone has had to live up to a parent’s expectations and fallen short at one time or another. In these characters, we find a sense of loneliness and desperation.
Shortly after the release and immediate success of the novel, Psycho, the master of film horror decided to introduce the boo
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In the novel, Bloch is very descriptive about how Mary undresses and looks at her nude self in the mirror.
Hitchcock chose the design of the house, which stands behind the Bates Motel. The big difference was that he added color and modernized the picture. Arbogast is slashed to pieces and knocked down the stairs, he sees images as he falls.
The differences in the movies and the novel are subtle at times and at others, vast. In the novel, Norman Bates is middle-aged man with a “plump face…rimless glasses…scalp beneath thinning sandy hair. The shower scene itself is very quick lived. Alfred Hitchcock made Psycho into an instant horror classic in 1960. ) In the first screen adaptation, Norman became somewhat attractive. He looked like a normal trustworthy person (Hitchcock, 1960.
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