Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: 10 out of 10
This is the bloodline film, folks. The one that started it all. In particular, the sub-genre of horror we have today, the slasher flick, is derived from Mr. Hitchcock's masterpiece about a boy and his mother. There are constant references to Psycho in horror films, most notably the naming of Donald Pleasance's character, Dr. Sam Loomis, in Halloween. And for the newer generation, Skeet Ulrich's character in Scream shares the same last name as well. Also, anyone who actually enjoys M. Night Shyamalan films can point directly to this film for it's use of the surprise twist ending. Modern horror is really defined by Psycho.
The film really has every ingredient to make a classic: iconic scene (shower scene), great dialogue ("We all go a little mad sometimes"), one of the top 3 greatest directors of all time, and a classicly frightening film score. Like Halloween and Jaws, if someone played you the theme music you'd be able to identify it immediately. Those screeching violins just resonate in your ears as we watch mother plunge a kitchen knife into poor, defenseless Janet Leigh.
That, of course, is the other deviation audiences were not used to. Janet Leigh was a huge star at the time this film was produced. Focusing on her story from the beginning of the film lulls the audience into thinking she's the heroine who goes through hell but ultimately survives the movie. Not so. As mother steps in through the bathroom door the audience had to be thinking "There's no way she's going to die". Then she does. Imagine we're watching a movie in the present time and 45 minutes in Tom Hanks gets murdered. It doesn't happen. Even knowing how effective it was in Psycho current filmmakers still don't have the balls to pull this trick on the audience. After Norman covers up mother's misdeed people had to be wondering if they were going to be forced to follow Norman around for the rest of the film. Killing off the main star was a twist of genius, just a perfect way to manipulate the audience: invest them in the story of this woman for half the movie, then kill her off so they don't know who to root for. I'm thinking most people know the twist at the end of the film, but in case you don't I'm going to leave that alone. Just promise me you'll watch it.
The best part of the film for me is any scene with Anthony Perkins. He plays such a naive, innocence about the character that you really feel sorry for him. He fumbles around with his words, embarassingly, as he tries to make conversation with the beautiful woman who just walked in his empty motel. When Janet Leigh suggests he put his mother in an institution he shows a dark, brooding side to his personality, suddenly turning on her and chastising her lack of kindness. Then, effortlessly, he snaps out of it and we're back to the boyish young man who doesn't know how to talk to a woman like Janet Leigh. Really good stuff from Mr. Perkins here.
Then there's the master, Alfred Hitchcock. There's nothing I can say that hasn't been said already. He's the master of suspense! I've seen 7 of his movies and I haven't seen one bad one yet. That's an embarassingly low total considering the catalogue of classics he's directed. Rest assured, I'm on it.
Next: Dawn of the Dead
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