Psycho (Hitchcock Day Screening)

Known as the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was a pioneering film director who brought us some of the best classic films of all time – Rear Window, Strangers on a Train, The Birds, Vertigo, and, of course, Psycho. But did you know that Hitchcock was fascinated by queer culture?

Hitchcock had many queer friends and colleagues, and he was fascinated by the idea of “queer-coding”, which is a way of portraying characters as gay/lesbian/bisexual without explicitly stating their sexuality through stereotypical traits audiences would recognise as queer, such as exaggerated masculine or feminine qualities. Hitchcock purposefully used his era’s stereotypes and misinformation about the LGBTQ+ community to explore various themes and plotlines, and though some are now acknowledged as misguided at best and harmful at worst, it is still brilliant to see queer people recognised on screen.

For Hitchcock Day at The Strand, BanterFlix’s Resident Disney Queen and local bisexual writer, Victoria Brown, will introduce a screening of Hitchcock’s Psycho and after the film she will give a short presentation about the queer-coding of Psycho’s villain, Norman Bates, and what this representation meant to audiences then and to audiences now. Join us, won’t you?