Still Remarkable To This Day

Rating: 10/10 (30 April 2017)

What a fantastic movie! A visual stunner with great camera work, superb acting, a wonderful script, and one of the greatest scores of all time. The term "masterpiece" gets thrown around a lot today but in this instance the glove fits. Hitchcock pulled out all the stops for this one and made a horror movie that can still frighten an audience today. Anthony Perkins' performance is fascinatingly perfect as Norman Bates. The duality of his role must have been difficult to act with but he pulls it off beautifully.
The one qualm I have is a common one. The exposition scene towards the end where the psychologist practically spells out the movie for you as if the audience are idiots who haven't been paying attention at all. I guess at the time psychological thrillers were far less common and the 1960's audience needed an explanation as to why Norman would dress up like his mother, but today this scene sticks out like a sore thumb. Despite this, I still give this movie a 10/10 for an (almost) perfect hour and a half of cinema.