Evil Urges, Evil Actions and Comeuppance

Psycho ... Psycho ... Psycho

I never understood why it's the young couple who's either smoking pot, or having pre-marital sex in the woods that's the first to get violently murdered by some movie mad man. While watching Hitchcock's Psycho, I realized it didn't used to be this way, that you indeed had to commit a much greater crime. In this case, it was Janet Leigh stealing about 40 grr which led to extreme paranoia and making the poor decision of stopping off at a hotel where the desk clerk asked her if she wanted "milk and sandwiches" for dinner. First of all, I don't ever condone stopping at a hotel that isn't a national chain, unless you're going to some quaint bed and breakfast for a weekend in which case the ambiance is making up half the vacation. Secondly, if the seedy clerk guy offers milk and sandwiches ... that's just way to creepy. Run! Lastly, dude is a taxidermist. I'm not sure where that ranks on the creepy professions list, but it's probably just a notch below "magician."

Getting back to the Evil Act Leads to Evil Done to You theory, or as hippies call it, karma, this is a fantastic example. It's 2009, and the Great Satan's (Picture of Zach holding two thumbs up and a huge smile) children love to have sex and smoke weed. Really, who doesn't? This is what the serious religious types will never understand. Man has evolved. We're going to fuck and get fucked up. This is unstoppable. We do this without any repercussions aside from some STDs and paranoia, which too can be prevented with good decision making. We're not doing anything wrong because we are causing no harm to others, and Norman Bates knows this. Norman Bates isn't going to come at you in the shower if you're having a romantic moment with either your lady or doobage.

This is why Psycho stands the test of time so well whereas a movie like Friday the 13th may not. Stealing $40,000 today is still a huge crime where someone is getting screwed, whereas banging a big breasted blond in the woods while some fat kid is drowning ... okay, maybe Jason did need to exact some revenge. Let's say though, you want to join the Mile High Club, spark a doobie, and worse yet, break the federal law and tamper with an airplane's smoke detectors. Does this mean you should be eaten alive by a snake? Snakes on a Plane says yes.

This is a great way of telling just how good a movie can be, by measuring the evil act committed versus the comeuppance received by said violator. We'd all agree that Psycho is better than Snakes on a Plane and in fact, I'm making everyone who reads this dumber by even comparing the two. My point is, this is something that gets missed in movies, and maybe missed in life sometimes as well. Sometimes maybe you take more than you give, and we don't have Norman Bates or Jason to rectify the situation. Maybe someone who steals $40,000 doesn't deserve to be hacked to bits in the shower, but hey, at least she had good water pressure. Check that out next time you watch this movie, I'd kill for water pressure that good in my shower.