Well folks there you have it, the entire “Psycho” franchise.

It’s a franchise that has buried itself in a-lot of Horror fans hearts and hopefully will continue to scare generations to come.

What’s that you say? I’m missing a film? Oh you mean Gus Van Sant’s 1998 shot for shot remake with Vince Vaughn as ‘Norman Bates’. Yes, I know and I’ve done it on purpose, I refuse to write an entire article on that abomination. So I think you can guess what my thoughts are on that film.

There was also a TV Movie made in 1987 titled “Bates Motel”, in this feature we see a mentally disturbed man, who roomed with ‘Norman Bates’ at the state lunatic asylum, inherit the legendary Bates Motel after the death of Norman I highly recommend you don’t watch it.

“Psycho” not only revolutionised a new genre but it also made a permanent impact on film goers. Before “Psycho”, movie theaters would play shows on rotation all day long. People would frequently come in the middle of one and stay till the middle of the next showing; leaving when they came in.

But Sir Alfred Hitchcock changed all that and made theater owners sign a contract that they would not let anyone in until the start of the film. Once they were late; they would not be let in until the next showing. This started formalizing the whole process of mandatory seating times at theaters which continues until today.

Talking of Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Paramount Pictures gave him a very small budget because of their distaste with the source material. Sir Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie so much that he even deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the movie’s gross.

Paramount Pictures, believing that this movie would do very poorly at the box office, agreed. When it became a hit, Hitchcock made a fortune. His personal earnings from “Psycho” exceeded $15 million. When adjusted for inflation, that amount would be over $131 million, I bet Hitchcock was happy with that.

Alfred Hitchcock was an absolute genius of a film-maker, it’s a real shame that we don’t have his type around any-more. He truly was a master of suspense and that is clearly evident with “Psycho” amongst his other masterpieces, just imagine if there were more of him around in todays genre.

There was also a TV show called “Bates Motel”, I tried watching it as I’m a big fan of Vera Farmiga but I just couldn’t get into it. Something about it just always felt off to me, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. but I did try, I know there are fans out there as it became quite a hit.

Believe it or not there was actually a “Psycho” video game released in 1988, marketed as a horror adventure game. The player ransacks the house of the Bates in order to find and bring back out, the stolen jewels before sunrise. I believe it was released for the Commodore and Amiga, though I’ve never had the privilege of playing it.

Although highly controversial in 1960 the film is now considered an iconic thriller, there’s no doubting that “Psycho” ingrained itself into pop culture. So much so that there’s comic books, figurines and more sold still to this day, plus everyone knows that iconic music from the shower scene.

As a franchise I personally feel that it is very over-looked, yes the first film was HUGE but the later releases are very entertaining and if you haven’t seen them you are truly missing out on the full story of the ‘Bates’ family.