If there is one single film that can claim to be THE best of all time, then this is it....

Rating: 10/10 (6 March 2005)

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*, if there can be in a film as famous as this....
Psycho probably has the most famous (and/or infamous) scene in the history of movies - the shower scene. The shower is in the Bates motel, run by Norman Bates, and his 'mother'. Even today, if someone looks freaky, many still say he looks like Norman Bates. If someone has a clingy or naggy mother, many a Norman Bates allusion is referred to. Psycho has become etched into modern culture and become a household name. Why?...because the film was a milestone, not just of gore, but of cinematic effect and technique. Psycho is, all at the same time, taut, mesmerising and terrifying. It is a textbook example of how to captivate an audience, and then shock them right at the very end.
The film starts by introducing a love-lorn and frustrated heroine, complete with a dead-end job, and a relationship that needs a jump start. The audience is introduced to her and her troubles; we follow her, and feel for her - then she is murdered right in front of us. The array of characters introduced in the first half of the film - the arrogant 'Texan' guy who flashes forty thousand dollars, the bumbling boss, the suspicious highway cop, the dumbfounded used-car salesman - all amount to nothing. This pioneering change in plot has the same effect as a tree which you collide with after pulling up the handbrake on a speeding car.
Then enter Milton Arbogast, the private detective who begins the search for our slain heroin Marion Crane. He investigates the Bates Motel and finds something amiss. He reports the news to the worried boyfriend and sister of Ms Crane - they all develop some trust and repartee. Then he's dead. Then enter the local town cop who doesn't believe the boyfriend's and the sister's suspicions, while all the time the audience knows what really happened and why people are dying at the hands of an 'evil old lady' who the disturbed Norman Bates is desperate to protect.
The whole film was a totally new way of writing a plot, and of manipulating a storyline. The supposed lead character is killed early on, a replacement protagonist suffers the same fate; and all the audience are then left with are the utterly desperate and confused Lila Crane (sister) and Sam Loomis (boyfriend), who have only their suspicions and fear to drive them toward finding the truth. The audience feels for them, because we know that Norman's mother murdered Marion Crane.....or at least we think we do.
Psycho only runs for around an hour and a half. It is the tautest thriller I've ever seen. Not one scene is wasted on being filler. Each scene is purposeful, powerful, and extremely economical. The pace is cracking when it needs to be, and slow and hypnotic when emotion and fear need to be emphasised; note the long scene as Norman Bates cleans up the murder scene - this allows the horror of what just happen sink in.
The script is rattling, with some flourishing dialogue that even overshadows some wooden acting from John Gavin. The cinematography is brilliant, with great use of lighting and shadows. And, of course, the directing is just simply cutting edge, even for today. Anthony Perkins does a perfectly chilling job as the psychotic Norman Bates, and Martin Balsam is a completely natural private eye. And famously, to complement these ground-breaking plot twists, are the chilling and perfectly executed murder scenes.
And finally, the chilling revelation of what really happened at the Bates Motel is kept right until the blood-curdling end, and is realised through a ear-splitting scream, a rotting skull, and a naked swinging lightbulb; a scene which leaves the audience shocked, terrified and thrilled after such a roller-coaster of a movie. For those few people to whom the 'spoliers' warning at the start of this piece applies, go and rent this film. It is simply a must for everyone. It is a defining moment of modern popular culture, and as such if there ever was a convincing candidate for the greatest movie ever made title, well then this is it.