The granddaddy of all slasher films: Hitchcock's classic and Perkins' iconic role

Rating: 10/10 (11 September 2006)

PSYCHO (1960) **** Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland. The granddaddy of all slasher films and serial killers, this Alfred Hitchcock classic defined the post-Cold War horror film for generations to come in this rather simple storyline: bank employee Marion Crane (Leigh) absconds with a client's bankroll and winds up the proverbial fly in the spider's parlor when she winds up in the middle-of- nowhere's Bates Motel, and mama's boy Norman Bates (Perkins in his iconic role) proving to be more than meets the eye. The perfectly edited shower scene (the blade never pierces the flesh!) by Geroge Tomasini, Bernard Herrmann's screeching violins score and the all-together ookie finale are American classics in every sense of the word. Best line: "Mother isn't , what's the term? Herself today".