“Leading them down the garden path": Another look at Hitchcock’s Psycho

In this essay I wish to explore some of the ways in which Hitchcock disturbs our understanding of Psycho through mismatching elements of character, dialogue and mise-en-scene in order to undermine Sigmund Freud’s theories on anal-compulsive behaviour and castration, and then to show how with the removal of generic logic, and the use of techniques developed for television, the director’s devious sense of humour runs riot.