While this film is extremely tame by today's standards, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" was immesely graphic in 1960 and was a truly shocking experience for cinema-goers.
This film is so legendary that a film about making the film has been made and it ended up doing quite well also. The difficulties that Hitchcock faced while getting this movie made during the rather "puritan" times of the 60's was immense. As silly as it seems now, depicting unmarried people in any sort of romantic situation was considered totally off-limits on screen and well, murdering a woman in the shower was unthinkable.
Hitchcock was incredibly protective of his film and when it was close to being released he wouldn't even allow the stars to do any sort of press out of fear that they would accidentally reveal the plot. Janet Leigh was a super-star at the time and one of the main elements of the film that Hitchcock was trying to shock audiences with was that she was presented as the star of the film, only to have her character killed off very early on it the movie. This strategy wasn't often used in films, but I do recall how shocked I was when Drew Barrymore was killed in the first 5 minutes of "Scream."
source
while the reactions are funny... it is also important to note that if you wanted to have a ciggie during a movie in 1960... go ahead!
While we have been desensitized to violence in our current time. Something of this magnitude was unheard of in 1960 and there were many cases of people fleeing the cinema and also getting sick inside of it. It's quite funny to me to think of a time of such incredible innocence since Psycho would be in danger of being considered a kids film these days.
When the film was released, Hitchcock had a strict policy of not allowing anyone who turned up late into the theater. He was adamant in this policy to the point if a theater violated this policy, Hitchcock would pull the movie from that cinema and refuse to allow them to have it back.
It was initially met with mixed reviews, which i suppose is understandable since it was so incredibly risque for the time-period. Upon its release in England, it received almost entirely negative press. This, of course was later revised once it was determined that the general public actually LOVED the film.
If you haven't seen Psycho, you really should even though it is extremely tame and perhaps even boring by today's standards. If you don't have it in you to appreciate a rather major piece of cinematic history, you could opt to see the film Hitchcock starring Anthony Hopkins, which basically details the making of this film and all the hardships that were faced in getting it to the public.