The Scene starts when Lila Crane is reaching the bottom of the main staircase in the Bates house.
When through the window she sees Norman Bates hastily approaching the house.Lila looks panic stricken she nervously looks around for a place to hide, she runs to the stairs down leading to the cellar, under the staircase. Bates enters the house; he looks in her general direction, and then runs upstairs. Lila cautiously moves away from the alcove, glancing back at the cellar door.
She does a turns back around and decides to have a lookShe goes into the cellar, and quickly finds another door--the one that leads to the fruit cellar. She opens it and goes in. The camera zooms in on an old woman, she seated in a rocking chair, her back to Lila. A scarf drapes the woman's shoulders and her gray hair is tied in a tight bun. A light bulb burns above. She reaches forth and touches the woman's shoulder, causing the rocking chair to swivel slowly, turning the woman to face Lila.
The face that appears is that of a rotted corpse. The corpse is top lit. The corpse appears to be smiling from the audiences' perspective, This adds to the horror. Lila screams, like her sister Marion did in the shower scene when she was attacked.Lila swings her arm back in horror. Her arm strikes the hanging bulb, and strobe flashes light the remaining scene as the lamp swings back and forth.
I think this intensifies the scene; the shrieking violin music starts, predicting a murder. Another woman bursts through the open door, screaming. The woman has the same insane look on her face and her eyes look vengeful as they did in the shower scene.She holds a knife in her raised hand. Sam appears at the door and grabs the attacker from behind.
Lila is not screaming. She is watching in disbelief as, in the ensuing struggle, the woman's wig falls off and the dress falls open, revealing the face and figure of Norman Bates. In Norman's face is a silent scream, in his arched torso a psychological battle, His two schizophrenic personalities are fighting with each other, Norman Bates the calm loving caretaker dies, his mother a cruel wicked murderess to take other permanently.The searing violin sounds of the murders before reprise as we gaze back at his mother, whose wrinkled, mummified flesh thinly coats her facial bone. In the hollows of her eyes the swinging lamp throws shadows that dance against the inside of her skull, and together with the skeletal grin, The mother seems pleased with what she has seen. Her final victory over Norman.
The lighting also is a reminisance of the past murderers, Shadow and light.ConclusionI find this a very important scene in the film, in the depths of the house the very roots of the history. The secrets are found, Bates dies and his mother takes over. The story line has an obvious twist, as the mother is not a real figure it is a figure of the mind that takes over Norman when he has great desires for women, as the mother is jealous. I think Hitchcock's Psycho was a masterpiece of its time and deserved the celebration.The fear is not a shock fear it is psychological fear and just by watching it, it does not scare you straight away.
It took a couple of hours for me to think about the reality in the film for the fear to scare me. The first time I had a shower after the film I left the shower curtain open and I was very paranoid.
