We all go a little mad sometimes.

In this episode, John, Matt, and Westy unpack the making of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker Psycho — the film that rewrote the rulebook on horror, killed its A-list star before the halfway mark, and taught generations of filmgoers that motels are frankly best avoided. We dig into how the Master of Suspense, fresh off North by Northwest, pivoted to a low-budget black-and-white thriller that nobody at Paramount wanted to make.

Our deep dive covers everything from Hitchcock buying up copies of Robert Bloch’s novel to keep the twist under wraps, to his decision to shoot with the crew from his TV show to keep costs down (a move that turned out to be less about frugality and more about creative freedom). We get into the casting of Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins, the production design of the Bates house and motel, and of course the shower scene — 78 camera setups, 52 cuts, seven days of shooting, and a lot of chocolate syrup doing the work of blood in glorious black and white.

From Bernard Herrmann’s all-strings score (which Hitchcock initially wanted to do without), to the censorship battles over flushing toilets and on-screen undergarments, to the film’s staggering box office and cultural fallout, we explore why Psycho still sits at the top of every horror list worth reading. Whether you’re a horror obsessive, a Hitchcock completist, or just someone who’s spent 65 years glancing nervously at shower curtains, we’ve got stories and opinions you won’t hear anywhere else.

Listen to the full episode above, or find All The Right Movies wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.