Hitchcock's thriller masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2014)

As such a famous film, Psycho has stayed in people's awareness for fifty four years for good reason. The haunting score, chilling atmosphere, and grisly murders struck a chord and created the horror genre of film. For 1960, it deals with then-scandalous matters like domestic abuse, voyeurism, and "split personality" very well. Everyone remembers the shower scene, but what has always chilled me is the venomously possessive mother-child relationship. Mrs. Bates berates her son mercilessly, showing a sadistic pleasure in emotionally torturing him. So well before murder rears its fatal head, we knew something evil was happening in that lonely house on the hill. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates perfectly as the young man with darkness behind his odd, shy manner. Janet Leigh was excellent as Marian. Yes, this film is as good as they say. If you one horror/psychological thriller film, see this one, the absolute best.