Psycho Reviews

I am a huge fan of Hitchcock, and have really liked all of the movies of his I have seen so far. My top 5 favourites are Vertigo, North By Northwest, Rear Window, Rebecca and this masterpiece. Before I saw this, I considered Vertigo as his masterpiece. After seeing this movie, I think Psycho outshines Vertigo.

Psycho is a film that you see once and never forget, and one of the few movies out there that has left me traumatised. The infamous shower scene is without doubt one of the most terrifying murder scenes in any film. When I first saw that scene on the 100 Greatest American Films, I was so terrified and I admit it I have never recovered. I had a similar experience watching the Disney film Sleeping Beauty with Maleficent enticing Aurora to the spinning wheel, and Mrs Gulch turning into the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.

The shower scene isn't the only effective or chilling scene in the film- in the events leading up to that scene I was biting my nails. The scene with the old woman in the chair also made me jump out of my skin. The whole of Psycho is terrifying, suspenseful and shocking. Two elements made this so. One was Hitchock's direction. The great director proves how truly great he is by directing Psycho in a masterful way, and manages to deliver the shocks when needed. The other is Bernard Hermann's music. What a creepy score! I loved his score for Vertigo and Miklos Rozsa's for Spellbound, but the high violin motif in the shower scene is the main reason why that scene in particular is so effective. I admit it, when I hear that motif, I start screaming. There is just something about it that makes your blood run cold.

Other pros are a good plot, a well constructed screenplay and beautiful black and white cinematography that is perfect in conveying the creepy mood. And the ending did surprise me. The acting though was exemplary, with Janet Leigh giving one of the deservedly most memorable female performances in a Hitchcock movie, and Vera Miles also giving a stellar performance. Stealing the film is Antony Perkins as Norman Bates, he didn't just play creepy, he WAS creepy, his face, his voice, his mannerisms.. in short it is one of the most chilling performances of all time. All in all, a Hitchcock masterpiece! 10/10 Bethany Cox

I am a huge fan of Hitchcock, and have really liked all of the movies of his I have seen so far. My top 5 favourites are Vertigo, North By Northwest, Rear Window, Rebecca and this masterpiece. Before I saw this, I considered Vertigo as his masterpiece. After seeing this movie, I think Psycho outshines Vertigo.

Psycho is a film that you see once and never forget, and one of the few movies out there that has left me traumatised. The infamous shower scene is without doubt one of the most terrifying murder scenes in any film. When I first saw that scene on the 100 Greatest American Films, I was so terrified and I admit it I have never recovered. I had a similar experience watching the Disney film Sleeping Beauty with Maleficent enticing Aurora to the spinning wheel, and Mrs Gulch turning into the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.

The shower scene isn't the only effective or chilling scene in the film- in the events leading up to that scene I was biting my nails. The scene with the old woman in the chair also made me jump out of my skin. The whole of Psycho is terrifying, suspenseful and shocking. Two elements made this so. One was Hitchock's direction. The great director proves how truly great he is by directing Psycho in a masterful way, and manages to deliver the shocks when needed. The other is Bernard Hermann's music. What a creepy score! I loved his score for Vertigo and Miklos Rozsa's for Spellbound, but the high violin motif in the shower scene is the main reason why that scene in particular is so effective. I admit it, when I hear that motif, I start screaming. There is just something about it that makes your blood run cold.

Other pros are a good plot, a well constructed screenplay and beautiful black and white cinematography that is perfect in conveying the creepy mood. And the ending did surprise me. The acting though was exemplary, with Janet Leigh giving one of the deservedly most memorable female performances in a Hitchcock movie, and Vera Miles also giving a stellar performance. Stealing the film is Antony Perkins as Norman Bates, he didn't just play creepy, he WAS creepy, his face, his voice, his mannerisms.. in short it is one of the most chilling performances of all time. All in all, a Hitchcock masterpiece! 10/10 Bethany Cox

What else¡ Every kind and statement on suspense, on psycho for movie dummies and not su dummies, hommage to entertainment even with the black and white restriction, sexy

'Psycho' is marvellous, attractive looking horror. With this, Alfred Hitchcock brings you a film that will keep you glued to the screen by its visual style and you'll only want to look away during the murder scenes! With great plotting, visual style, direction and acting, 'Psycho' is one of the best horror films of all time, if not the best!

A stunning achievement in every aspect, "Psycho" is a truly daring film created by the world's most prolific director at the peak of his career. Anthony Perkins' lead performance, Hitchcock's phenomenal direction and effortless creation of suspense, the iconic Bates Motel and the horrific score created by Bernard Herrmann, arguably the best score in any Hitchcock film, make this the director's very best film, if not one of his best.

Psycho

// Marion Crane, a platinum-blonde officeworker, is trusted by everyone who knows her as an honest, decent good woman. However, on her lunch breaks she rushes immoral activities with her lover, who is broke due to paying out alimony to an ex-wife. Desperate to marry him, Marion is handed $40,000 from a flirtatious old client. Unable to resist temptation i.e. the urge to solve her problems with her lover, she flees back to her apartment with the money. After some mental backtracking and imaginary scenarios, Marion ignores her desires and drives into the night, waking up to a suspicious policeman, whom follows her as she trades in her car to throw him off the trail. On the highway to Fairvale, Marion stops off at the empty, decrepit Bates motel; so secluded that her presence will not be noticed by the police. Upon her arrival though, she doesn't bet on the proprietor - intense, jumpy and withdrawn young man Norman - and domineering mother to make sure she truly regrets her moment of madness and want to return the money. But it is too late; she is stabbed to death in the shower by a completely shadowed figure strongly resembling invalid mother from the overlooking draconian house. Marion's lover Sam and her sister Lila become suspicious along with Arbogast, a hired private investigator who leads them to the motel and the shocking truth...
Widely regarded as Hitchcock's best film, Psycho is certainly his most imitated and perhaps his most influential. Constantly twisting and turning, it opens as a romance, then turns towards a crime, ostensibly Grand Guignol, and finally switching to Freudian thriller in its last scenes. Redefining cinema, Psycho managed to spark controversy with its infamous shower scene - which remains one of the most iconic in screen history - not only for killing off its star half-way into the film and then focusing on another character for the rest, but for its shots of a flushing toilet, stabbing motions, nude body, bloodied bath, plug hole, and dead eye. Although it is only implied (no visible stabbing of flesh is shown) the murder was shot featuring 77 different camera angles, running three minutes including fifty cuts most of which are extreme close-ups; the stabbing of the flesh is audibly detailed (a knife plunging into a melon) and definitely so convincing it really doesn't need to be seen, probably why censors had so many problems with it. With Bernard Herrmann's screeching, all-string soundtrack flaring wildly, the succession of close shots combined with their short duration makes the sequence feel more subjective than it would if the images were presented alone or in a wider angle. If so pivotal to the film, what is the meaning behind that fateful shower? Subtracting the total of expenditure from the $40,000, Marion was going to come clean the next morning and accept whatever consequences lay ahead. She could no longer abide with the immorality of her well-intended actions, so stepping into the shower represents baptismal water to cleanse her sins; the spray beating down on her was purifying the corruption from her mind, purging the evil from her soul. She was like a virgin again, tranquil, at peace, smiling. We as an audience are at once alienated by Marion's death, the apparent centre of the film, and her washing away of guilt is the catalyst for her subsequent absolution, even if it is particularly terrifying and brutal. Hitchcock is effectively abandoning religion by killing off Marion prior to her repentance, Freudian psychology is the solution for the crimes of profit and passion, as always; the inexorable forces of past sins and mistakes crush hope for regeneration and resolution of destructive personal histories. Each character to enter the motel is at least once or twice reflected by glass or mirror and this alludes to both Norman's duality and good and evil altogether; everyone has two sides to their mind, and as Marion's bad deed transformed into an evil act of destruction by the hand of Norman's mind, she is absolved in the wrong way. Exiting the sweltering, unsatisfying, banal current existence in Phoenix, Marion enters the reality of crime and corruption, leading her into another world of paranoia, deceit, perversity and violence. Marion's deprivation of love, home and marriage are the elements of human happiness, wherein also lies within Psycho's secondary characters a lack of familial warmth and stability, which demonstrates the unlikelihood of domestic fantasies. The film contains ironic jokes about domesticity, such as when Sam writes a letter to Marion, agreeing to marry her, only after the audience sees her buried in the swamp. Sam and Marion's sister Lila, in investigating Marion's disappearance, develop an increasingly connubial relationship, a development that Marion is denied. Norman also suffers a similarly perverse definition of domesticity. He has an infantile and divided personality and lives in a mansion whose past occupies the present. Norman displays stuffed birds that are frozen in time and keeps childhood toys and stuffed animals in his room, where he still he sleeps in a children's bed. He is hostile toward suggestions to move from the past and remains firmly jealous of whoever enters this world he has grown to inhabit so deeply and yet comments to Marion that he only says he wants to leave; so does he or mother contradict his decisions? Light and darkness feature prominently as a result of this ambiguity, the film's dominant theme. The first shot after the intertitle is the sunny landscape of Phoenix before the camera enters a dark room where Sam and Marion appear as bright figures. Marion is almost immediately cast in darkness; she is preceded by her shadow as she re-enters the office to steal money and as she enters her bedroom. When she flees Phoenix, darkness descends on her drive. The following sunny morning is punctured by the watchful police officer with black sunglasses, and she finally arrives at the Bates Motel in near darkness. Bright lights are also the ironic equivalent of darkness in the film, blinding instead of illuminating. Examples of brightness include the opening window shades in Sam's and Marion's hotel room, vehicle headlights at night, the neon sign at the Bates Motel, the glaring white of the bathroom tiles where Marion dies, and the fruit cellar's exposed light bulb shining on the corpse of Norman's mother. Such bright lights typically characterize danger and violence in Hitchcock's films.
As effective as it is playful, Psycho is a genre piece so gripping and irrevocably gruesome it will stay ingrained in the mind longer than a dozen other similar films. It remains a true masterpiece, never to be bettered.

It is already more than 50 years old but it is still one of the best thrillers ever made. Whereas some older horror/thriller flicks tend to get a little bit cheesy and outdated when you see them so many years later, this one still looks modern and the structure is still stricking even for nowadays standards (Indeed, at first, the focus is set on Janet Leigh but she is in fact killed really early in the movie). The whole thing was so unexpected, it was just pure genius and the fact that it hasn't been more copied later on is because most of the directors don't have the balls to try such a daring move. I can imagine how the audience must have been shocked at the time, it must have been awesome to witness it first hand. Furthermore, it is still pretty creepy and Anthony Perkins gave one of the best performances in motion picture history. Indeed, he managed to create such a fascinating character, at the same time, rather sweet and even charismatic but also awkward and antisocial. When I check Hitchock's filmography, I think I still prefer 'Vertigo' even more but this flick is probably a closed second. To conclude, it is a great classic, I love it and it is definitely a must see for any decent movie buff.

What hasn't been said about Alfred Hitchcock's magnum opus Psycho? Every genre - of anything - has a permanent placeholder (ex: The Godfather in both gangster and greatest) and Psycho is the placeholder for horror movies. Seriously, you name me one list which doesn't have this film as number 1. Actually, there is a list: Mine! Yes, in my book this film is number 2 only to Nosferatu which I consider to be the greatest horror film ever made... beat that!

Enough chit-chat: Psycho is a movie which is best enjoyed if you haven't the foggiest about anything in the film and I'm glad I was one of those people. Seriously, apart from the famous shower scene (which I'd only heard about it, but never seen), I'd absolutely no friggin idea of anything and believe me, when I saw it for the first time... let's just say I started watching horror movies from a totally new perspective and as for showering, I triple-check whether the door is locked or not and then I triple-check it again, just in case!

I think this is a very brilliant, well-made horror movie which is very atmospheric and spine-chilling. Now you see, horror should be made like this: intriguing, shocking, ever-lasting and top of all, entertaining. Since I'd already read the book, I was surprised to find how much it strayed from the novel. I didn't like the changes but I think it was handled correctly but of course, the book is miles better than the movie.

Then we have the performances: Anthony Perkins made a household name out of himself by playing Norman Bates flawlessly. Out of all the performances in Hitchcock-films, Perkins ranks as the 2nd or 3rd best, so you can say it was that great. Even though she was nominated, I found Janet Leigh's performance to be just average. I mean, I liked how she handled her character, Marion Crane, in such short screen time but it was OK nevertheless. The one I totally loved was Vera Miles's performance as Lila Crane, which I think the number 1 best. I've always liked Lila on paper and Vera Miles did an excellent job on the silver screen. She possesses all the qualities of a Hitchcock girl: Blonde, icy and a determined state. What do you think? Then of course we have Simon Oakland as Dr. Fred Richmond at the end of the film (the guy who reveals Bates, remember?) His performance is often ignored but I think he did a great job and he delivered his speech in an impressive manner. I'm a sucker for long scenes which involve a-lot of talking and this is one of the best...

So there you go, the greatest (second-greatest in my book) horror film ever made by a MOAD - Master Of A Director - and no-one else could've done it better. Read the book first and then see the movie and then evaluate which one was better!

9.5/10

Psycho. Even the name is striking. For a film released in 1960, such a blunt title was daring. How apt, then, that it would be for such a daring film. This was cinema reinvented. This was cinema being borne into a new era. An era that would finally see the end of the Hays code. An era that saw many cultural shifts. An era that saw old Hollywood become new Hollywood. It was a brand new decade and who better to lead the renaissance than Alfred Hitchcock? The master of suspense unleashed his best film. A film better than all the Rear Windows and North by Northwests, or at least more significant. Psycho. A bold title for a bold film. History was about to be made.

There is little to say about Psycho that hasn’t already been said. So I will begin at the start. The opening credits are sharp and searing, created by the legendary Saul Bass. The complex yet minimalist animated sequence, backed by the legendary Bernard Herrmann score, propels the viewer headfirst into a psychologically warped film. The opening score, perhaps not as famous as the shower scene music, is incredibly evocative nonetheless. This is the moment when you know you are watching a good film. It gets uphill from there. Psycho goes from strength to strength, building blocks climbing to the suspenseful peak.



We are introduced to the unconventional leading woman; the first time we see her, she’s wearing nothing more than a bra and a skirt. Yet Marion Crane isn’t simply a subject of what Laura Mulvy would call the Male Gaze. Instead, she is presented as stronger than that. She isn’t being taken care of, rather she is taking care of her financially compromised lover. After stealing some money from her job, a suspenseful trip cumulates as she reaches the Bates motel.

We soon discover, though, that the previous suspense is nothing compared to what else is in store. It’s from here that the film truly develops legs. Marion and as a result, the ever gripped audience, meet Norman Bates, the anxious young motel owner. In perhaps the best male performance of all time, Anthony Perkins truly inhabits his role. Every little tick, every little mannerism, every word of dialogue. It was a performance of such magnitude that he was typecast from here on out. Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins play off each other incredibly well, both appearing anxious, both for obviously different reasons. They tell a story with their body language. Crane, already nervous over her crime, is now feeling uncomfortable about Bates and his unnerving swings from polite to irritable and his troubling commitment to his mother.



Then comes the shower scene. It wouldn’t be foolish to claim this as the most famous sequence in film history. The protagonist is viciously killed by a shadowy figure in a minute long scene that left and still leaves many people too scared to take a shower. Such an unconventional turn of events was truly a daring move. Perhaps this was some sort of divine retribution, punishing her for her crimes. Murdered at her most vulnerable point. Something all men and women fear. Some may claim that this is a step back from the previously independent woman first presented to us at the start. However, what happens here is nothing different to the gangsters shot down in the Warner Brothers films of the thirties. Only this occurs mid way through the film. This was new territory. The fabulously constructed voyeuristic sequence is in itself a mini-masterpiece that has stood the test of time. Few can deny that the scene is still effective. The ingenious use of editing to create a violent slap in the face to viewers, along with the screeching violins, is a perfect example of why Hitchcock was such an indispensable figure in the film industry. His vision helped beckon a new age of film with one single scene. Something he can never be thanked enough for.

Hitchcock’s direction after the infamous scene continues to amaze, with long stretches of silence, only digetic sound present, accentuated by lucid tracking shots. We find our views and beliefs of characters shift about, uncertain of who to root for. With the protagonist gone, what now? Hitchcock cleverly manipulates our feelings through these extended scenes of quietness, the attention now shifted to the enigmatic Norman. Such understanding of the audience is something that Hitchcock excelled at. In fact, he was probably the best of all directors.



Eventually, we are lead to a strong climax, after many mysteries are explored and many twists are turned. The final twenty minutes is one big chilling finale, so taut and well wrapped that it’s almost claustrophobic. The performances are pitch perfect and even if they weren’t, no one would notice, since Perkins would draw us away from any faults. He shines. He is the epitome of a flawless characterisation. Something that many ignorant award ceremonies seemed to ignore. If there is a reason not to trust the Oscars, this probably tops the list.

The film is an example of true craftsmanship. The screenplay by Joseph Stefano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch, itself inspired by the true life crimes of Ed Gein, is full to the brim with intense and infinitely quotable dialogue. The psychoanalytical plot points are of hugely admirable audacity, with Freudian themes present from start to finish. It was a film way ahead of its time. The editing by George Tomasini, who had collaborated with Hitchcock on many of his other masterpieces such as Vertigo, is one of the primary reasons that this film succeeded, the shower scene enough proof of that. The cinematography, filmed in atmospheric black and white, a stark contrast to the vivid colours of his fifties films, is one of the best in any film. Psycho would have lost some if its effect if it were filmed in the more commercially acceptable colour format. The choice to film in black and white remains one of the wisest of all artistic decisions. Then of course, there is the aforementioned score, which is without a doubt, the most important use of music in any film. Psycho is primarily Hitchcock’s genius, yet it is a film that has its strengths in the many. It truly is a film of incredible collaborative genius.



A film of immeasurable essentiality, Psycho’s influence can be seen on a number of other brilliant films, notably Blue Velvet (1986), Halloween (1978), Funny Games (1997), Chinatown (1974) and Blow Up (1966), amongst a sea of others. Psycho’s legacy is beyond impressive, a sign of a priceless classic.

Due to the era that Psycho was released, Norman Bates may not have had the opportunity to cut through a swath of teenaged bodies (not that most teenagers back then didn't deserve it) in the manner that the Freddies, Michaels & Jasons do these days, but he definitely pioneered the crazed, almost supernaturally-empowered maniacs that the modern masked comtemporaries have become famous for.
Though the datedness of this movie has seemed to lessen the shock & horror of this b/w classic, the energy of it still reverberates today & the ending shot of Norman Bates' visage is still one of the best creepy endings on film.