I'll never look at a shower the same way!

Rating: Null/10 (20 June 2000)

"Psycho" is amazing suspense and terror at it's best. It is quite possibly considered to be the grandfather of the slasher films and Alfred Hitchcock does his absolute best to keep people on the edge of their seats for the whole film. Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, a secretary who embezzles $40,000 and runs off to be with her lover, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). During a rain storm, she stops at the Bates Motel, run by a quiet young man named Norman (Anthony Perkins) and his "mother". She has dinner with him but "mother" doesn't seem to be too pleased and while Miss Marion is taking a shower, she gets stabbed numerous times in an absolutely horrific scene which doesn't lose it's effect even after 40 years. It IS scary! We then meet Lila (Vera Miles), Marion's sister who teams up with Sam and a private investigator Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam -- who also meets the wrong end of the knife), to figure out what happened to Marion. The ending is great and explains the reason why Norman acted the way he did throughout the film. This is definitely Alfred's best film. He seems to balance suspense and terror and even a little black humor here and there. Amazingly, this film spawned 3 sequels and is the best of the bunch. One of my top 5 favorites!