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As humans, it is our nature to have fears about things we are unsure of. Horror movies have always appealed to the masses because they provide a safe venue through which the public can be faced with their fears. The three movies; "Psycho", "Frankenstein", and "Dracula", each had different underlying themes which highlighted different fears that we all have. The fear of being betrayed by someone we trust, the fear of the chaos that can erupt when a man tries to play God, and the basic fear of the paranormal, were each expressed very well in the movies. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 version of the movie "Psycho" caused quite a stir at the time it was released. Although it is quite different from the more modern horror movies, it has held it’s position as one of the scariest movies of all time. The reason for this, being the fact that the "monster" in this story didn’t seem to be a monster at all in the beginning. Norman Bates was a mild mannered, quiet, seemingly carefree person. This is what made the terrible things he did, seem all the more frightening. The monster in this case was created as the result of a psychological problem. Norman Bates was probably never completely normal. Family problems, such as his father leaving, and his mother eventually getting a new boyfriend whom Norman was quite jealous of, triggered the monster that was in Norman’s head the whole time.
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