If you didn’t already know that Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho was about a serial murderer, then in the first 20 minutes of the film you might think that the psycho is the first protagonist (and also antagonist), because it begins with her stealing $40,000 from her boss and then running away. But, soon after, she meets her untimely death in the famous shower-murder scene, which even if you’re not aware of it, you have definitely seen a clip of before. The story then follows a psychotic (hence the name “Psycho”) murderer who truly longs for his mother to return.

This film, among many others of the 1960s, was filmed in black and white even though the first full-length color film “The Wizard of Oz” was filmed in color in 1939. Color film was still very expensive even in the early ’60s, but it was also considered a director’s choice to use black and white or color film.

Recently, I was lucky enough to see a screening of this classic horror film in the AMC Movie Theater in Stony Brook. Although the theater accommodations weren’t that great, being able to see such an artfully-made film on a large movie screen was an unforgettable experience. It also helped that I had never seen the  movie before, so all of the well-known cheesy scenes were exciting. The showing was sponsored by a partnership between Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies, a television channel that primarily shows movies from the beginning of film to the early ’70s. (Just in case you were wondering, it’s channel 68.) Showings like these also happen often in local movie theaters in the city.