Psycho (1998)

" P S Y C H O " "PSYCHO" By Joseph Stefano Based on the novel by Robert Bloch REVISED December 1, 1959 FADE IN: EXT. PHOENIX, ARIZONA - (DAY) - HELICOPTER SHOT Above Midtown section of the city. It is early afternoon, a hot mid- summer day. The city is sun-sunblanched white and its drifted-up noises are muted in blanched their own echoes. We fly low, heading in a downtown direction, passing over traffic-clogged streets, parking lots, white business buildings, neatly patterned residential districts. As we approach downtown section, the character of the city begins to change. It is darker and shabby with age and industry. We see railroad tracks, smokestacks, wholesale fruit-and- vegetable markets, old municipal buildings, empty lots. vegetable The very geography seems to give us a climate of nefariousness, of back-doorness, dark and shadowy. And secret. We fly lower and faster now, as if seeking out a specific location. A skinny, high old hotel comes into view. On its exposed brick side great painted letters advertise "Transients- Low Weekly Rates-Radio in Every Room." We pause long enough to establish the shoddy character of this hotel. Its open, curtainless windows, its silent resigned look so characteristic of such hole-and-corner hotels. We move forward with purposefulness and-toward a certain window.