'Mother! Oh God, Mother! Blood! Blood!'
I remember the first time I saw the iconic shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. I was probably only 10 or 11 and the 1960 horror flick was playing on a Saturday afternoon. I'd never heard of the film, nor of Hitchcock when I saw the scene. I turned into the movie just before the Marion steps into the shower.
At the time, I remember thinking it seemed a bit silly, and didn't really find it scary at all. Then... when I got a little older, I saw the scene again, this time, watching the film from the very beginning. This time, it hit me, the terror wasn't only in the brilliantly filmed shower sequence, the terror was layered, built from start of the movie and each scene leading up to it.
In the film's first 20 minutes, we get to know Marion Crane. Her lover, her workplace, her plan. Her strength and vulnerabilities and her destination desperation. Those scenes build making the scene more shocking causing the audience to feel heartbroken that Marion's plan comes to such ] a bloody end.
A few years ago, I put together a pieces pulling together a selection of Psycho 'shower scenes' that I had gathered on-line. (HERE:) This shot by shot set of images, came to me just this week thanks to Tom from TR Pics. When I was putting together the post featuring Tom's ode to Friday the 13th, I asked if he had anything Hitchcock related. As you can see, he most certainly did!
One of Tom's earliest models, Andy Hill, was always up for creating, and re-creating, unique and amazing ideas. I've featured Tom's work with Andy before, (HERE:) but this is certainly one of my favorite concepts that they've worked on together. With Halloween this year, being devoted to Horror films, this iconic scene was a must include.
'Andy had amazing ideas he wanted to try. He sort of became my muse and we would have marathon shoots. We lived about four hours apart, but for a few months we found time to shoot several times together, with each session being very different and unique.'
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