Hitchcock's magic has never been better

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2019)

Psycho is as much a meditation on fear as it is an outright horror film. The master's most well known film is a masterclass in case and character study. With the exception of Halloween, no latter-day horror/thriller has been capable of generating as many goosebumps. The black-and-white photography is perfect for the film's tone and mood - the starkness of color would have blurred the nightmarish quality. The painstaking care with which Hitchcock composed every scene is evident in the quality of the final product. Psycho may not represent the master director's pinnacle, but it is the motion picture for which he is best known, and its legacy is inarguably one of the most far reaching of any film to come out of a Hollywood studio. With Psycho, Hitchcock dabbled in cinematic taboos, pushing the censorship envelope. This is a film that s rightfully considered a benchmark and a milestone of horror.