What makes psycho scary?

Psycho is the original slasher movie. It is what most of the common tropes of slasher are based on and many movies directly copy or are influenced by psycho. For example the classic music in the shower scene.

Before psycho, horror was mostly based on monsters and movies adapted from gothic novels such as Dracula and Frankenstein. These films, although scary at the time, lacked the realism that psycho delivered and this made it incredibly scary for audiences at the time and to modern audiences today.

Prior to this, most stories had that typical set up where the main character is protected or at least dies for a purpose. But not in this case. This is where Hitchcock changed the game. He killed off a female main character for no reason other than (spoiler alert! )the anger of Norman Bates. The thing with psycho is that the monster involved isn't from another planet or built in a lab, it is a normal person you could come across in the street. In 1960 the term 'serial killer' which is effectively what Norman was, wasn't a common term and the fear to audiences at the time would be like nothing they'd have experienced, it would hit them that anyone could be a killer.

You couldn't talk about psycho without mentioning the way the film itself is made. Firstly the whole movie is filmed in black and white, the first colour showing on TV was in the 50's although most homes didn't have a colour television till the mid-60's it still would've been possible for the movie to be made in colour. Black and white definitely has more of an effect on audiences now than at the time. Now we really only see newspapers in black and white which is where the real life horrifying stories of war and famine are present today and I think that the black and white in psycho reflects this.

Next the incredible score in psycho is something you feel down to your core. Especially in the shower scene, the high pitch squealing of the strings haunts you and is the epitome of suspense and terror. It forced the audience to feel the sheer terror that Janet Leigh felt. The composer of the arguably most famous piece of music, Bernard Herrmann, considered the music the 'communicating link' between the filmmaker and audience. He was able to watch the movie and write the score scene by scene.

To really understand the complexity of the movie, the layering of themes and subtle symbolism, multiple viewings are necessary.

The low budget movie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best  Art Direction/Set Decoration at the academy awards sadly not winning any of these but remains one of the best films ever made, scaring people for generations (and definitely deserved those Oscars)