‘I think perhaps all of us go a little crazy at times...’
Psycho is one of the most beloved films of all time and also one of the most influential. Most of master director Alfred Hitchcock’s films were adaptations of novels and while some of them were only loose reimaginings of the source material, Psycho stays pretty close to the book upon which it is based…
Psycho the novel is pretty much the same as the film in terms of plot but we get much more of Norman Bates’ twisted inner monologue. As writer Robert Bloch had no film censors to placate, the novel is much more graphic than the film with beheadings, sexual perversion and grisly murders all described in great detail. Contrary to popular belief, Bloch had almost finished the novel before he heard about notorious serial killer Ed Gein and while he did insert a line alluding to Gein in the later chapters of the novel, Bates is entirely the creation of Bloch’s warped mind.
As with many of the books that Hitch adapted, Psycho is not a literary novel. It’s pulpy, trashy even, with sordid subject matter and moments that must have been shocking upon the book’s initial publication in 1959. That’s not to say it’s badly written, however – it isn’t. Bloch’s prose is both powerful and propulsive and Bates himself is a fascinating character which explains why he has endured across both cinema and television for decades now.
I would say that for horror fans Psycho is pretty essential reading, likewise for Hitchcock fanatics. At a slender 185 pages the book clips along at a brisk pace and remains compelling even if you already know the big reveal going into it – a horror classic.