The best horror film ever -- by a wide margin

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2003)

Psycho still holds up as brilliant entertainment more than 40 years after its release. So great is the film's influence on modern cinema that this fact is, in itself, amazing. Psycho broke cinematic ground in many areas, and immediately spawned countless imitators (William Castle's "Homicidal" comes immediately to mind.)
First, consider the elements of the film's success. A razor sharp script. One of the 5 best musical scores in the history of film. One of the best acting performances (and certainly the most underrated) in film history by Anthony Perkins. Near perfect black and white photography. All these things fit together so seamlessly that it is easy to overlook them.
Second, consider (and it is difficult for modern viewers, since so much of Psycho has been imitated to the point of becoming a cliche) the ways the film broke new ground. (WARNING -- SPOILERS FOLLOW)
a. It killed a central character, in a completely shocking and surprising way, halfway through the film. It killed a female character! It killed a *sympathetic female* character!!
These things *just weren't done* in a film before then. Let me tell you, I watched the film, at the age of 16, on the big screen. After the shower room scene, people were in a state of complete shock. My mother, who sat next to me, had dug her fingernails about a quarter inch into my forearm. The man sitting in front of me had an asthma attack. The impact of Psycho on film audiences was so powerful it is really difficult to imagine.
b. It completely succeeded in fooling the audience with a major twist.
Let me assure you. Virtually NO ONE who watched Psycho had ANY IDEA Norman Bates was the killer until the final scenes. The killer with a split personality has now become a tired cliche in cinema, but at the time it was revolutionary. EVERYONE thought the killer was this crazed woman we hadn't seen yet. Every one of my friends and all the adults in my neighborhood saw Psycho. Everyone admitted, laughingly, that they had been completely fooled.
c. It actually created a phobia for many of its viewers!
For me, and for many other people, Psycho actually created a phobia. For years after watching it, many people actually felt creeping fear every time they drew a shower curtain shut. For the master of suspense, there could be no higher tribute.
I cringe when I see people call Psycho "overrated" or wonder aloud "why it wasn't shot in color." Good grief!
To understand the true genius of the film, you had to be alive at the time and watch it on the big screen. But please, please go back and watch one scene -- the "sandwich dinner" and ensuing conversation between Tony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Watch this scene, and all it manages to convey, then watch the identical scene played, in color, by two pretty good actors (Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche in the dreadful 1998 remake. Vaughn knows what he's up against, and can't begin to come close to Perkins. The question is, could any actor in the history of film play this scene as well?
That one scene, in my opinion, should put Tony Perkins in the acting hall of fame, and should have won him an Academy Award. But in those days, horror films were automatically ruled out.