Through ugliness, beauty is achieved

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2009)

One would expect little from a film like this. In it, a psychopath murders people. It's pretty much as simple as that. There's back-story, of course, and the characters are three-dimensional, but otherwise, this is the typical thriller. However, it sets the standards for all thrillers to come after it. The exaggerated murder scenes and the music are two of the most copied horror techniques I have ever seen, and they originated in this film, and only in this film are they artistic. What sets this film apart from others in its genre is the fact that it is not all massacre. There's more suspense than anything else; impending doom. The murderer is not even the central character. A series of strokes of bad judgment from Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), the character who really stokes the fires, sparks a sinister chain of events. The people this chain of events involves are performed in such a way that they are real people thrust into a frightening situation, all strung together by the dark, confused thoughts of the title character, of the psycho. Interesting and masterful. Ten out of ten.