Hitchcock's 'Psycho' broke many established rules in film

How Alfred Hitchcock changed cinema

In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock changed moviegoing with "Psycho." At a time when audiences came and went during screenings, he enforced strict start times, banned late arrivals, and kept plot details secret. The result? A $32M hit that helped shape modern theater etiquette.

Breaking down the music theory of Hitchcock's 'Psycho'

One of the defining features of Hitchcock’s film “Psycho” (1960) is the music, especially the sounds you hear during some particularly grisly scenes. This analysis from The Music Professor analyzes how that music complements the film, highlighting the way strings match the intensity of the film’s screenplay and black-and-white cinematography.

10 films that influenced Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock influenced generations of filmmakers who came after him, but this article focuses on the films that influenced the master himself. Among the titles on the list are Lyman Howe’s “A Ride on a Runaway Train,” which allegedly inspired the sexually charged ending of “North by Northwest,” and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “Les Diaboliques,” which many people believe is responsible for the pivotal shower scene from “Psycho.”

Hitchcock's career began shortly after World War I

Nearly 60 years after beginning in the silent film era in 1919, Hitchcock produced his last film, "Family Plot," in 1976. Over his decades-long career, Hitchcock brought a literary sensibility to previously maligned genres like thrillers and innovated numerous camera techniques.

Alfred Hitchcock's work continues to influence movie directors today

Hitchcock’s importance and influence are exemplified in the specific tropes (such as the MacGuffin and the killing of innocents) and techniques (like the dolly zoom) that the director pioneered and popularized, demonstrating just how far-reaching his influence remains.

Hitchcock struggled to make movies at his peak in the 1960s

Despite being at his peak, iconic director Alfred Hitchcock had many unrealized movie projects in the 1960s. The reasons are manifold, including difficulties with casting, budget limits, and controversies around project themes. This podcast breaks down the mysterious hurdles the director faced.

Hitchcock uses recurring images, themes, and tropes in his films

Movie nerds Adam Frost and Zhenia Vasiliev break down eight of the director’s “trademark obsessions,” including his penchant for killing blonde leading ladies, the way mothers are portrayed, and the various ways characters are killed.

Hitchcock films thrive on the terror of the ordinary

Hitchcock's films rely on seemingly ordinary elements—like birds or hotels—but slowly turn them into menaces, thanks to the director's pioneering camera techniques. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Hitchcock believed film editing was a form of mosaic

In this interview, Hitchcock explains why he doesn't like the term "cutting" because it implies "severing something." Instead, he believes cuts in film allow for a fuller picture and uses the famous shower scene from 1960's "Psycho," which he says uses over 78 different cuts, as an example.

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a Hitchcock superfan

Famed director Martin Scorsese breaks down what makes four Hitchcock films (“Dial M for Murder,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” and “Psycho”) so remarkable and discusses how Hitchcock’s style influenced his own work, including his 1980 film, “Raging Bull.”

Alfred Hitchcock influenced modern horror director Jordan Peele

Like Alfred Hitchcock, Jordan Peele has built a filmography that’s equal parts thrilling, suspenseful, genre-bending, and literary. It’s no surprise, then, that so many critics have been quick to name Peele as the second coming of “the Master of Suspense.”

Hitchcock created his own archetype with the 'Hitchcock Blonde'

The most iconic Hitchcock Blondes from the director’s catalog include Kim Novak, Ingrid Bergman, and Grace Kelly. The roles they played contributed to the gothic and foreboding aesthetics that have come to be associated with Hitchcock’s work.

Watch Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film noir, 'Rebecca'

"Rebecca" was Hitchcock's first American film and is the only Hitchcock film to win the Academy Award for best picture. The story, based on a 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier, is about a widower (played by acting legend Laurence Olivier) and the haunting direction his life takes in her wake.

‘Halloween’ is one of the most profitable indie films of all time

The 1978 John Carpenter movie grossed $70M in its initial run despite a modest budget. It helped pioneer the “slasher flick” subgenre, though it wasn’t filled with cheap thrills. As Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of the movie, Carpenter’s filmmaking techniques—alongside his original score—were a work of art.

The Hays Code limited the ways horror films could scare audiences

Beginning in 1930, the Hays Code laid out a strict set of guidelines for Hollywood filmmakers to prevent films that might corrupt those with a “susceptible mind.” That meant no graphic violence, no sexual relations outside of marriage (or of a homosexual nature), and no interracial relationships, among other dictums.

Horror exploded as a commercial literary genre in the late 1960s

Ira Levin’s 1967 novel “Rosemary’s Baby” showed publishers horror was a viable commercial genre. That was proven again in 1971, with William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist” and again in 1974 with Stephen King’s “Carrie.” The books dealt with societal fears (the occult, drugs, sex) during a time of political upheaval.

The best jump scares in horror history

Ever since the first jump scare in 1942’s “Cat People,” directors have been using the technique to terrify (and delight) audiences. This list of 25 classic instances of the move includes scenes from “Get Out,” “Psycho,” “Candyman,” and more.

The 2017 adaptation of King's 'IT' is the most successful horror movie ever

The 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel "IT" wasn't the first adaptation for the screen, but it was the most successful. It broke multiple box-office records, becoming the highest-grossing horror movie in history. This resource breaks down every record it broke in its theatrical release.

The best cult movies

Cult film followings develop for a number of reasons. Some admire a movie's unappreciated genius. Others believe the work was simply ahead of its time. And, yes, some cult classics gain their cult status because they're unbelievably, laughably bad. This list includes all of the above, ranking the films that have developed passionate, even obsessive, followings—for whatever reason.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

'Bonnie and Clyde,' the 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, was the first major American movie to feature graphic violence.

Director Arthur Penn used the then-new Squibb technology, which triggered realistic and bloody bullet wounds, to portray graphic violence, at the time a taboo in American cinema.

HBO is known for its adventurous original series

The premium network is known for groundbreaking shows like “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “The Wire,” “Game of Thrones,” Succession,” and more. Unlike traditional broadcast television, HBO shows were not bound by strict time limits, advertising, or FCC regulations, allowing for more creative freedom.

'Hair' helped redefine Broadway theater

"Hair" rewrote the rule book, bringing politics, race, and, yes, nudity to Broadway. Plenty was going on backstage, too, with the young, revolutionary cast embracing the countercultural life they portrayed onstage.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

Diving into 'The Flame and the Flower,' the book that popularized 'bodice ripper' romance

The 1972 Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel helped create the romance subgenre featuring historical settings and intense, steamy sex scenes. It was an under-the-radar sensation, quietly selling millions of copies while simultaneously courting controversy for its portrayals of rape. In this essay, Jeannette Cooperman revisits the book to see how it reads 50 years after its publication.

Who was Freud and what did he say?

Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous psychologists and is widely cited—but do you really know the basics of what he taught? Here's a super brief breakdown of his major insights.

Gary Panter's punk art defined the '70s and '80s counterculture

The artist got his start providing fliers and logos for early Los Angeles punk bands, but later took his psychedelic, Pop Art-vision to designing on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," for which he won three Emmy Awards.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

Prince's sexually explicit 1984 track 'Darling Nikki' attracted the ire of the Parents Music Resource Center, an advocacy group that inspired the Parental Advisory sticker, even though the song ends with a Christian message.

Fireworks make a loud booming sound after exploding due to air expanding faster than the speed of sound.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.