The delicious hair-raising terror of it all!

Rating: 10/10 (29 October 2005)

As a teenage movie buff, three films profoundly affected me and this is one of them (the other two for the curious are "War of the Worlds" which I saw at far too young an age, and "Witness for the Prosecution" another Hitchcock effort with a completely unexpected gob-smacker of an ending).
All three I have watched since, "War of the Worlds", though still an impressive sci-fi, no longer terrifies me, "Witness for the Prosecution" I've seen over and over and still put on my top 50 best films of all time and Psycho, well Psycho remains in a class all by itself. I am still gripped by the wonderful confluence of a great plot, marvelously acting, a superlative director and a score that enhances all of the above.
No one needs details of the plot from me. Everyone knows the plot. I am a lifelong fan of the great Hitchcock so should mention I have a bias to all things Alfie. This remains one of his best and broke new ground when first released. Like the above-mentioned WFTP and "The Exorcist", movies now had a new twist; you could not be admitted to the theatre after the movie had started.
As one can imagine, this engendered great excitement for the cinema audiences. What would the ending be? What were all the blood and guts warnings all about ? We read stories of fans passing out in the theatres where Psycho was played. We could hardly wait. We could not even imagine in our fevered brains what Hitch had created and was going to wreak amongst us.
We were not disappointed. Psycho embodied every horror we had ever let fester at the edges of our imaginations and then some. The shower scene had our hearts and minds freezing over and gripping each other in delicious icy horror. The slashings did not have to be shown, barest glimpses of corpses were revealed. There was nothing graphic on screen. The true terror resided in our imaginations and lingers there still. Many of us lock windows and doors in our own houses when taking a shower; many of us have never taken a shower again.
Once in the seventies I saw the set where this was made, the old house on the hill, and the remains of the motel. Perhaps it is all gone now. What a thrill, to see where it all began, to walk in the footsteps of the great Alfred.
This is a 10 out of 10 for the breakthrough into a new genre of film-making. Absolutely faultless, unforgettable and imminently re-watchable. In magnificent black and white. Leigh, Perkins and supporting cast flawless. Bravo to all.