Cinema's finest moment

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2013)

Psycho is a timeless, well-respected classic. It's a pop culture icon and a household name. Just hearing the movie's title will inspire the image of Janet Leigh screaming in the shower. Hitchcock did this movie flawlessly - it almost seems silly to review this film because it's common knowledge how perfect it is. The acting is absolutely impeccable. I would almost say that Tony Perkins played Norman Bates too well because he was never really able to be anything ever again. The similar paradox of Bela Lugosi, who could never escape his "Dracula" image. I was lucky enough (lucky only for the fact that it gave me an extra element of analysis ability of the original) to see the re-make of Psycho. The movie was pretty much a duplicate, yet just not as good. It's sometimes hard to identify perfect acting, because that's the whole point of it: to not notice the acting. But after watching the shot-for-shot remake and realizing it was no where near as good as the original, my respect for the actors and the black and white cinematography grew even deeper than it already was. Hitchcock's ability to do horror without gore is fantastic.