Throughout cinema, there has always been room in our hearts for the blood and intrigue that comes from horror films. Although they have different plots, he remains “the monster”, the character who brings with him disgust, horror, suspense and even sympathy. In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), our monster is Norman Bates, the boy next door. This was one of the first times in American cinema that the killer was brought home, paving the way for the future of horror films. According to Robin Wood in “An Introduction to the America Horror Film” (183-208), Bates follows the formula that the Monster is a psychotic human. This is conveyed through his normal facade portrayed with his introduction, the ambivalence of the audience, the use of motifs, the relationship the family has in the making of the Monster, and the pent-up sexual energy that is drawn out in horrific ways. According to Wood, horror films follow a basic formula. One variable in this formula is the ratio of normality to the Monster. “The relationship has a privileged form: the figure of the doppelganger, the alter ego, or the double…” (Wood 192). We first meet Norman when our future victim Marian stumbles upon his lonely motel. It evokes an average amount of normality to the untrained eye. Although he stumbles a bit with his words in response to her beauty, overall he is welcoming and kind. The strangeness begins to emerge when he starts talking about his sick mother. You see in his eyes that there is more to the story than what is being stated. Marian insists that she could free herself from her mother's dominion if she sent her away. Norman responds by saying she doesn't need to leave, she's not a maniac, she's just a little crazy, and "let's all go a little... middle of paper... and leather-faced, a chainsaw carrying a madman, a kid, or even the local motel owner down your highway. In the case of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller Psycho, our monster was Norman Bates, a psychopathic killer his ability to attract the audience's sympathy, from the relationship he has with the things he stuffs, from the oppression of his mother and consequently from the actions formed by his years of sexual repression. These aspects consolidate the formula presented in “An Introduction to the America Horror Film” (183-208). Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Vera Miles, John Gavin American horror." Writing 2 readers. BK Faunt. Autumn 2010. [Winter 2011] [183-208]