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Plot: A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother.
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Psycho Recent Reviews
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Recent Reviews
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MCT:December 29, 2006not interested!
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MCT:November 29, 2008Riveting! Incredible and genius! Although it is made a little bit of tricky, at least, it trickles your mind,.. and the words that were used was an excellent choice into arriving at the definite end.
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MCT:November 28, 2008
This is a classic thriller. Set the stage for future thrillers. Watch this film if you can. Also a Alfred Hitchcock classic.
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MCT:November 28, 2008Psycho: the master of suspense at his best! Most people prefer Vertigo or Rear Window, but they aren't even in my top 100, although I do love them. This is his best with out a doubt.
I am appalled at the Oscars of 1960. Anthony Perkins, who gave the second best performance I have ever seen as Norman Bates (first being Nicholson in The Shining) was oscar worthy, but was never even nominated!! He was best when he acted nervous, and did little things like chew his gum faster and tap his fingers on the table. He managed the stutter, one of the hardest speech inpediments to act. He was the only actor who could have ever been Norman Bates.
Janet Leigh was nominated, which was a great move and Hitch was also nominated too. Both deserved to win but didn't.
The score is fantastic! The shower scene score is brillianht, yes, but so is the opening credits score, which I actually prefer; it suits it so well. Both pieces are memorable.
I love the ending so much. Both for the twist and the final few scenes. This is the definitive suspense thriller, with out a doubt a classic which has aged brilliantly. -
MCT:November 28, 2008
''A boy's best friend is his mother.''
A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother.
Anthony Perkins: Norman Bates
Janet Leigh: Marion Crane
Throughout his life, illustrious director Alfred Hitchcock thrilled and captivated audiences everywhere, but never before or since as well as he did with the psychological chiller, Psycho, which introduced the cinematic world to a guy named Norman Bates. And now nearly fifty years later even in an age of fading, worn out sensibilities, graphic horror and the likes of psychological Silence of the Lambs, and American Psycho, Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho remains, even after repeated viewings, truly frightening and intrinsically disturbing.
For Psycho unlike a cheap blood-and-gore flick routine, actually has a philosophy of life to go along with all its horrors and dramatics. In the world of film and sin, such as Marion's stealing her boss's money, will always be followed by repercussions in Karma or the cosmic balance.
The long conversation between Norman and Marion over dinner probes some pretty serious psychological depths and ideologies. "We're all caught in our private traps," says Norman, and the movie illustrates how first Marion, then Norman, becomes trapped. What's most shocking about Norman is how pitiable he results in being, especially when compared with the villains of alternative horror movies.Psycho also undeniably has one of the most famous scenes in the history of cinema, the genius and illusion soaked sequence, yes you've guessed it...''The Shower Scene''.
The shower in question is in the Bates motel, run by Norman Bates, and his mysterious mother. Even in modern times, if someone looks strange, many still make comparisons to the hermit like Norman Bates.
If someone has a clingy or moaning, temper induced mother, many a Norman Bates reference is implied. Psycho has become tattooed and injected into modern culture thus becoming a glowing household name of sorts.
Why?...because the film was and still is a milestone of unmeasured significance, not just of splatter and gore, but of cinematic effects and technique. Psycho is, all at the same time, smooth, mesmerizing yet frightfully terrifying. It is a textbook example of how to captivate an audience, and then shock them right up until and during it's climax.''A hobby should pass the time, not fill it.''
Psycho in effect was essentially a totally new way of writing a plot, and manipulating threads of a story. The supposed lead heroine is killed early on in a bizarre shocking twist of fate and events, a replacement protagonist suffers a similar twist of fate, and all the audience are then left with are the utterly desperate and confused Lila Crane(sister) and Sam Loomis(boyfriend), who have only their fears and assumptions to propel them to the damning answers they seek. We the audience connect to them if only for a glimmer of a moment, because we know that Norman's mother murdered Marion Crane.....or so Hitchcock leads us to believe.
Psycho only runs for around an hour and a half, but that is all that is required for one of the greatest psychological horror/thrillers to be born. Not one scene is wasted on being a space to fill in, every scene serves a purpose, remains powerful, and in effect, extremely economical.
Even though Psycho was made on a relatively low budget, having Hitchcock behind the camera makes for lots of subtly effective shots, images, motifs, etc. He orchestrates two frightening death scenes, a suspenseful beginning that fools you into thinking that Marion is the protagonist, and a quietly chilling conclusion. Bernard Herrmann's score really is as good as everyone says, and not only the shrieking violins during the famous shower scene. In particular I liked the scene where Marion is debating whether to steal the money, and the music mirrors her indecisiveness.
Pace is startlingly quick when required, yet at times also slow and hypnotic when emotion and fear need to be emphasized.
The long scene as Norman Bates cleans up the murder scene serves as a haunting reminder to what just occurred, letting us the audience soak it up like a sponge.The script is well conceived and written obviously, with some flourishing dialogue that even overshadows some wooden acting from John Gavin.
Cinematography is brilliant, with great use of lighting and shadows. And, of course, the directing is just simply cutting edge, even for today. Anthony Perkins does a perfectly chilling job as the psychotic Norman Bates, and Martin Balsam is a completely natural private eye. And famously, to complement these ground-breaking plot twists, are the chilling and perfectly executed murder scenes.''She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?''
''Yes. Sometimes just one time can be enough.''
Two things overall in Psycho as mentioned prior. One is that harsh, driving Bernard Herrmann score which fits the mood of the film so well. The other is Hitchcock's direction and his use of black-and-white photography to convey a threatening mood. He said that he used black-and-white to make the film less gory, in fact, it seems far more eerie and frightening than a colour version ever could.
It's easy to take Psycho for granted now, it has been imitated so many times in so many ways by far lesser talents. Indeed, it's one negative is that it inspired so many pale imitations, including its own three sequels and a very bad remake. Yet even so, Psycho remains a one and only original carbon print. And its iconic status can't be denied or criticized, Psycho redefined the concepts of what a Hitchcock film was and what a horror film could be.
''You know what I think? I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out. We scratch and we claw, but only at the air, only at each other, and for all of it, we never budge an inch.''
Comments
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GymNetic25posted 263 days ago -
come try my horror movie quiz
http://www.flixster.com/user/mrbicklethepickle/quiz/the-horror-movie-quiz?invitorId=185849826posted 317 days ago -
Bernard Hermann was the greatest help to Hitchcock in this movie.
I wish Audrey would have accepted Leigh's role :(posted 453 days ago -
this is the most chilling movie ever made and hitchcock is one of the best directors ever
posted 495 days ago -
Who can forget that scary but mesmerizing tune that everyone knows as the Psycho theme.
Before this movie no Director attepted to kill off the main character(well -known) in under 30 minutes.
The sound effects of the shower scene was a knife slicing a melon.
So Janet was not scared during the filming as it was done in separate takes but she said it seemed so realistic when she saw the final product she was never able to take a shower again.posted 496 days ago -
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Psycho definitely is one of the greatest American films ever made! The people in the film turned in fantastic performances, and who can forget the shower scene?
PS-Just to tempt fate, I still take showers! heheheheposted 795 days ago -
