Check in. Relax. Take a shower...

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2000)

PSYCHO (1960)-- Grade: A+
WARNING: YOU MAY FIND SOME SPOILERS AHEAD
It's amazing how some films are kind of icons not only for a decade, but forever. If you don't go to the movies just for fun, answer me: what is the first name that comes to your mind when someone talks about suspense/mystery films? FRIDAY THE 13TH? No. SCREAM? No. Wes Craven? No. John Carpenter? No. Brian De Palma? No. Of course the answer would be "Alfred Hitchcock", if you really like cinema. Hitch is an unanimity today among film critics even more than 20 years after his death, something that never happened even with Kubrick and Buñuel, for example. Not every film of his is a masterpiece, but at least one is an unquestionable classic, an icon when you think about suspense films: PSYCHO. It was released in 1960, shocking audiences and slowly becoming a classic. Considered by the American Film Institute the 18th best film ever and being one of the most well-known pictures of the American cinema, it was obviously ripped-off lots of times, even remade by Gus Van Sant in 1998 scene by scene. But, in opposite of what we would expect, it never became stale. It's still the same PSYCHO, an unique, chilling, spectacular work of art that entertains audiences and makes them think. A masterpiece!
It's amazing how this film still remains unique 40 years after its release. Every generation enjoys it, every person who watches it for the first time has a strong opinion about it, it is always a good subject for talking. Some of the most remarkable moments of the cinema are on PSYCHO, at least one: a shower scene. But first let's get back to the beginning of the story. Marion Crane works as a secretary and her boss gives her a huge amount of money to deposit. Her boyfriend has to pay some debts and they want to live together without trouble. As the smart girl she is, Marion decides to run away with the money. She knows she is doing something wrong, so she changes her car and keep going on the road. On a rainy night, she realizes that is difficult to drive more and decides to stop at a motel she doesn't know: the decadent Bates Motel ("12 cabins, 12 vacancies"). There, Marion is received by a young man named Norman Bates, the motel owner, and checks in. He invites her to come to dinner, but Marion hears the voice of Norman's mother, who refuses to let the girl enter at her house. He takes to her a small dinner on his office and they talk a little. Norman lets to know that his mother is invalid and was involved in a tragedy on the past, and he works with dead birds. He seems to be an insecure person because of his mother attitudes. They finish to talk and Marion goes to her room in order to have a shower. That seems to be a calm place, uh? Well, Marion is taking shower and... you know what happens... Poor girl! Norman gets disturbed with the fact and hides Marion's car with her body (and the money) on the swamp. Some days later, Lila Crane, Marion's sister, and Sam Loomis, Marion's boyfriend, are searching for her. A private detective, named Arborgast, will appear to help them. The secret they will find out involving the insecure boy and his mean mother is something very, very weird.
With an unusual story, Hitch made the one that is the best film of his brilliant career, along with VERTIGO. The story of PSYCHO could turn into a mess, but the screenplay is perfectly written, with all the ingredients to surprise and scare us. At the screen, what we see is even better. Not one disposable scene, great situations, involving characters. And Hitch... it is not even needed to say. Helped by a wonderful cinematography and Bernard Herrman's chilling, unforgettable score, his camera takes and the angles he uses are just brilliant! The two murder scenes are just perfect, especially the one in the shower, which I don't need to say that is one of the 3 most well-known scenes of the American cinema, and also one of the 3 best, scariest etc. Oh! And the actors! Who could think that Janet Leigh would be killed on the first half? And who could think Anthony Perkins was such a mad guy? The conclusion goes to the right way, being smart and haunting.
I could write all my impressions about PSYCHO, but I don't want to take this much longer. It is one of the films that most influences the American cinema of our days. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. And that's it.

To finish, I just wanted to make a parallel between a scene in PSYCHO and a similar one in Brian De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL, obviously influenced by it. When they sum up the crime in PSYCHO, the police officer say that Marion Crane was kind of an alert for the mother to show up into Norman Bates-- the rigid mother who wanted her son only for her. In DRESSED TO KILL (you may think I'm a perverted), Kate Miller and Liz Blake were alerts for the psychiatrist's male side to show up. He wanted to change his sex, but they were obstacles to him because he got "excited" with them. I don't know why I'm writing that... That's interesting, but forget!