Shocking

Rating: 10/10 (21 February 2000)

Psycho is one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films ever made and is one of the few horror masterpieces in film history. That's the main-line, given stroke of it. But what it comes down to is that, really, seriously... it's Psycho - the one and only (that we acknowledge, screw off, Gus Van Sant). More than anything why it's Hitchcock's triumph as a commercial filmmaker - past the shower scene and the camera tricks and the notorious finale - is that it's (not so) secretly a monument to what we hide in all of us.
What I love about the movie seeing it again after so many years is seeing how in her own way Marion Crane is a bit of a psycho, just not quite at the level of 11 that Norman Bates is. There's an interesting parallel to make to how voice-over is used; Marion's imagination gets the better of her for a moment as she drives along and she makes up what the cop that pulls her over, her boss, her boyfriend, etc, all say. Watch as her face contorts into a little grin, almost against her better judgment, when she imagines the more twisted portion of the dialog. Frankly, I've had dialogs going in my head like that, imagining the worst that could happen from a mistake or bad deed, and almost taking pleasure in the more morbid aspects (I mean, hey, I directed Jealous Jerzy, what does that tell you? But I digress).
So keep that in mind when it comes time for the end of the movie - hell any portion really with Norman and "Mother". But mostly that last scene. After what is an amusing parody of exposition (the psychologist goes on for so long that it's the only logical explanation aside from dated, clunky writing - I prefer to think Hitchcock was smarter than that and was mocking what would or could be an exposition on Norman Bates + Mother and then just "Mother"), Norman/Mother is in his/her room, and the camera closes in as the voice-over gets intense, plotting, paranoid, not wanting to swat a fly. Perhaps Hitchcock wants to draw the parallel, though there is a distinction: Marion imagines other people talking, while Norman isn't even in the equation: it IS Mother. Yeah.
Such great stuff. And if you haven't seen it before... what are you reading this for ya dummy!