A Movie Out of Time

Rating: 6/10 (23 February 2008)

It took me 48 years to see this movie. Not a fan of the horror genre, I generally avoid them. But there have been a few that I've see that are really good. Psycho is a good film but time has passed it by, it is a movie out of time and just does not carry the punch it did in 1960.
Technology advances degrade much of technique used in this film. Audiences today are too sophisticated to be drawn into a film like this. Modern horror movies depend heavily on special effects and not on the subtleties used in Psycho. Being released in black & white is an advantage and helps give the film a feel of being the classic it is.
Anthony Perkins is superb in the role as Norman Bates. Other than Martin Balsam and Perkins though, the rest of the actors deliver only average performances. The lines are rigid and often lame, again the effect of time passing the method by. Perkins however can take the worst role and give it smoothness.
I'll not reveal any spoilers but for a movie so referenced and so often used in comedy and serious pieces, it is impossible to see this movie today without knowing what happens to the main characters.