Friday Face-Off: 60s Horror
Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme created by Books by Proxy! Each Friday, we will pit cover against cover while also taking the opportunity to showcase gorgeous artwork and feature some of our favorite book covers. If you want to join the fun, simply choose a book each Friday that fits that week’s predetermined theme, post and compare two or more different covers available for that book, then name your favorite. A list of future weeks’ themes are available at Lynn’s Book Blog.
This week’s theme is:
“Feed me Seymour”
~ a cover featuring 60’s HORROR
Mogsy’s Pick:
Psycho by Robert Bloch
Halloween is almost here! To celebrate, I’ll be featuring the classics on Friday Face-Off for the full month of October. First up, it’s everyone’s favorite murderous mama’s boy! Here’s a selection of some of the more interesting covers:
From left to right:
Robert Hale Limited (1960) – Fawcett Publications (1960) – Robert Hale (1975)
Portuguese Edition (1961) – Turkish Edition (1962) – Corgi (1977)
Warner Books (1982) – Dutch Edition (1982) – Pocket (1989)
Bloomsbury Publishing (1997) – Polish Edition (2008) – Spanish Edition (2010)
The Murder Room (2014) – Portuguese Edition (2015) – Georgian Edition (2016)
Winner:
It was tempting to choose a cover with the infamous shower scene, but in the end I decided to go with the 1961 Portuguese edition because its classic horror/thriller film noir visual style is so iconic. I really like its simplicity as well as the use of the extreme close-up angle on the female character’s terrified face, which seems to be a popular design trope of the times.
But what do you think? Which one is your favorite?
The BiblioSanctum 
Whoa! The one with the woman I the bath tub is DOWNRIGHT CREEPYY! 😱😱😱😱 I too like the one you picked out. The other ones are just too…confused, in my opinion…
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Yeah that one is disturbing! It definitely plays to the fears and horror of that shower scene!
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What an excellent choice for this week’s theme:)). My favourite is the 1982 Dutch edition of the girl obliviously showering with the knife-wielding shadow looming over her. Apart from anything else, I like the fact it isn’t showing gratuitous amounts of flesh.
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I gotta say, I never knew there were so many clever ways of portraying the infamous shower scene!
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Absolutely!
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So many awesome covers. I love this movie but have never read the book. I did enjoy the A&E series that used to run – Bates Motel, as well. I think my fave is the 2015 Portuguese edition. For some reason, I’m really loving the Portuguese editions today!
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Haven’t read the book either, but it’s on my list!
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Great choice😁 Wow, the covers are so varied for this book. But I guess with any classic you are going to get lots of different covers. I’m leaning towards the Murder Room edition, I love the bold simplicity, and that eye is perfect!
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There were a lot more, but I limited the ones featured here to the ones that fit the theme or that I thought were interesting. There would have been too many to show them all here 😀
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Wow I feel stupid, I didn’t realize Psycho was a book. I’ve only ever seen the TV series Bates Motel and enjoyed that though. Cover wise I think I quite like the black and white one with the eye, it’s really striking. One of the others actually freaks me out a little 😅
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Yeah, I think it’s one of those cases where the fame of the movie has surpassed the book. Thank you, Alfred Hitchcock! 😀
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Cool choice this week!
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Thanks!
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You’re welcome!
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Well done! That famous, iconic scream would point to Psycho even without the title… 🙂
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Oh no doubt!
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Oh, what a thrill! I like your version but I am partial to the shower scene even though I’ve never seen the movie. The Dutch Edition (1982) OR the all-black Georgian Edition (2016) with the house and walkway delivers a bang for your buck for me
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The shower scene is a classic 🙂 I like what all the artists have done with it!
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The Robert Hale one is good, but the Spanish one is scary
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Yeah, I love how the older cover are just as creepy as the modern ones.
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I really like your pick!
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Glad to hear it 😀
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Ooh these are fun! That Robert Hale one is pretty graphic, and the Portuguese one is great too.
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Yeah that one was the most disturbing one I found – it’s graphic but not anywhere near my favorite. I definitely think less is more 🙂
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Psycho was one of the first library books I read when I got my first ever adult library ticket when I was twelve! I still enjoy the film! I like that Corgi cover-very creepy!
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Awesome, that is such a cool library story!
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Love the vibe these covers give! This also gave me a reminder that I need to watch this Hitchcock movie ASAP! Hahah 😀
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It’s a classic! I want to see it now too, it’s been a while since I last watched it 🙂
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Ooh, this is one I didn’t even think of. Somehow I never knew it was a book!
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I love your idea to go with the classics for October and Psycho is an inspired choice for this theme – wish I’d thought of it. I quite like the Dutch edition.
Lynn 😀
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