A Great Hitchcock Suspense Film

Rating: 9/10 (14 August 2016)

Let me begin by saying that I grew up in the 80's, meaning that I am of the generation that was reared in the age of "Friday the 13th", "A Nightmare of Elm Street", and "Halloween". Those "slasher" films as they're often called set the stage for later horror flicks the likes of "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer", along with a slew of other more modern horror films that follow in the legacy of movies with very intense villains.
The first time I saw "Psycho" was around five years ago, and I had heard that it was the prototype of all of the above modern horror movies that I'd grown to love from my adolescence. I was quite let down, as this film is far from a Freddie, Jason, or Michael type of movie. Instead, this film is a "horror" film of a different time and era--the era in which Alfred Hitchcock was synonymous with the genre. And, inasmuch as that's true, "Psycho" has an altogether different feel than any of the post-"Exorcist" or post-"Halloween" horror films which have come to be more popular nowadays. Another way of putting it might be that this movie may rightly be considered a "horror" movie, but it's not really a "scary" movie by today's standards. Creepy at points? Yes. Scary? No.
That said, I gave this movie a second chance today at a screening at a local historic theater. This time I went into it expecting a Hitchcock movie rather than a modern horror film--and I was not let down. Expectation is everything when it comes to what you get out of a movie, and when before I went hoping for an introduction to a gruesome killer the likes of Michael Myers, I left feeling like I'd been ripped off. But when I watched this movie knowing what to expect--a film high on suspense, with a psychopath as the main villain, albeit one that is a bit cheesy by today's standards--I found myself thoroughly enjoying this movie.
I don't think I'm alone in feeling that this film has lost its horrific element in light of modern horror story telling. At one of the most climactic parts of the film (not the well known shower scene, but rather the climax involving Mrs. Bates later on toward the end of the movie), everyone in the theater literally laughed out loud. Perhaps not robustly, but still--the audience's reaction to a scene that was meant to be grotesque was laughter. That's how cheesy parts of this film can be by 2016 standards.
And yet, still, when you watch the film for what it is--a suspense filled Hitchcock movie which deals with concepts of ethics and karma, along with the story of a hermit turned psychopath, this is an extraordinary movie.
Two of the things that I like most about the film are the great camera work and its score. The movie is in black and white, but its picture quality is sharp (I saw it in digital projection), and the cinematography is as good as any ever put on the silver screen. And that theme song! The violins rushing this way and that--definitely one of the movie's best attributes.
All that said, I'm giving "Psycho" a score of 9/10 stars, which is much higher than I would have given it when I expected a more modern touch, and indeed much higher than I imagined myself giving the movie when I walked into the theater. Perhaps the only thing making this movie fall just short of a 10/10 is that there are a few little plot holes that seem somewhat obvious if you think things through for a moment--but I won't go into those as it would require spoiling some things. The point is that this is a great movie, so long as you know what kind of vibe to expect. I highly recommend it--just know that you're watching a suspense filled Hitchcock movie, not a modern day horror film.