"The great trick in Psycho is Hitchcock's ability to make us care about a maniac," Kinn and Piazza write about the 1960 film by the director. "He introduced America to the vulnerable, boyishly charming monster next door."
Hitchcock biographer Patrick McGilligan told that the studio at which Hitchcock was under contract, Paramount, was "horrified at the possibility of this lurid film being made." One of the ways Hitchcock got the movie made was by not receiving a salary, said McGilligan.