Psycho (film Series) - Legacy

Legacy

Psycho has become one of the most recognizable films ever made. The shower scene alone has become one of the most iconic cut scenes in cinematic history. Psycho is frequently referenced, given homage to or spoofed in television shows such as The Simpsons, South Park, American Dad, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and more. Films such as Scream 2, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Throw Momma from the Train, Scary Movie and more have referenced the film. Many critics and filmmakers have cited Psycho as the film that modernized the horror genre. Horror writer David. J. Schow stated (in The Psycho Legacy) "It brought the idea that the killer in a horror film was not a mutant, didn't have dents in his head; he could look like that nice young boy from next door". The film also brought in a new level of acceptable violence and sexuality in movies. Both Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh spent the rest of their careers being typecasted by the film. Even Alfred Hitchcock's films began to decline in critical and financial popularity after the release of Psycho. Hitchcock film scholars argue that for the rest of his career, Hitchcock's films were constantly being compared to Psycho. 52 years after its release, Psycho still maintains a large fan base for both the original film and the three sequels. Various websites dedicated to the franchise such as The Psycho Movies.com have appeared on the Internet. Books detailing the making and impact of the film such as Alfred Hitchcock and The Making of Psycho, The Moment of Psycho, Janet Leigh's Psycho: Behind The Scenes of the Classic Thriller have been published over the years. Two retrospective documentaries have been released detailing the making of all four films including The Making of Psycho (1997) and The Psycho Legacy (2010). The film also spawned the show Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies at Universal Studios Florida, with part of the show detailing how the shower scene was filmed. In 1992, Psycho was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.