A flawed classic

Rating: 3/10 (16 January 2010)

1960 was in a way the beginning of modern horror. Before that, horror movies featured monsters and mythical creatures, and monster movie was synonymous with horror movie. This all changed in 1960 with the release of this movie and the inferior, controversial, career-destroying Peeping Tom. These movies showed the worst kind of monster: a human being.
The plot follows that Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) embezzles money for herself and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). She stays overnight at the Bates Motel, run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). It's not a surprise to anyone that Norman Bates is the villain of the movie. That is one of the primary problems with this movie: Norman is the only likable character in the entire movie. He's handsome, but shy and misunderstood, so he can't have a relationship outside of his voyeuristic fantasy life. This is a grave contrast to Marion Crane, a sleazy, immoral character.
All is going well to this point; it looks like it might get interesting, but starting with Marion's murder, it takes a 180. Her murder is one of the worst (not most brutal) I've ever seen. While the killer is supposed to be stabbing her to death, the camera jerks all over the place. Epileptics should definitely skip this part. John Carpenter did a far better, less obvious obscuring of graphic murders 18 years later in his Halloween.
The movie then goes from bad to worse, as we observe some of the going ons in a small town, with Sam and Marion's sister, Lila (Vera Miles). Here is where it gets really boring, showing us inconsequential pieces of small-town life. Unlike Halloween, which was based on the introduction of a madman into the everyday life of babysitters, Psycho's second half is little more than filler. There is essentially no connection between the first half and the second or between the second half and the first. It just meanders for a half hour or so.
The climax really comes out of nowhere. The special effects aren't that good (in fact, they're awful), but it is the best part of the movie: Sam tackling knife-wielding, cross-dressed Norman and the following scene providing a glimpse into Norman's mind, something that nothing before that had done.