She couldn't even hurt a fly

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2006)

Psycho remains the greatest thriller ever made. I consider it Alfred Hitchcock's last great film (apologies to all Birds lovers out there  I'm sorry, but in Hitchcock's standards that movie really was mediocre at best) as well as the best he had made, and the one in which the efforts of terrific films like Rear Window, Vertigo and North By Northwest finally culminated into one timeless masterpiece. Hitchcock knew what most of today's directors of thrillers and horror movies have forgotten  how to build up tension and sympathy for his characters. In no film did he do it better than in Psycho. And so, even if it doesn't seem half as violent and horrific as it did four and a half decades ago, and even if the shower scene isn't as convincing as we'd like to remember, it's still one of the scariest and most effective thrillers ever made.
Psycho was clearly years ahead of its time, and it laid the groundwork for modern thrillers from Taxi Driver and The Conversation to Fight Club, Se7en and The Usual Suspects. Other than the fact that it's a perfectly constructed film, from the opening titles (by the great master Saul Bass) and the wonderful music (by the irreplaceable Richard Herrmann) which compliments and build the tension and horror to perfection; to the editing, the subtle dialog and the construction of each scene and each shot  Psycho stood out for the focus Hitchcock put for the first time on the villain character, to whom the heroes  Janet Leigh as the victim, John Gavin as her lover, Vera Miles as her sister, and of course the great Martin Balsam as the investigating detective  all take second place.
Norman Bates is not only a lifetime performance for the great Anthony Perkins; he is the single greatest creation in the entire Hitchcock catalog, and one of the most fascinating villain characters in film history. It may be remembered that in Hitchcock's previous films  Rear Window in particular springs to mind  the 'madman' or villain character was the most unsatisfying and undeveloped element of the film. The murderer's motives are tackled here head on, and in this way it foreshadows many of the greatest thrillers of the 70's, 80's and 90's. Psycho is not about discovering the identity of the killer  that much can be figured out by any viewer from the first time Norman Bates is on screen. It's about exploring Bates's mind and psych; his dialog is written to perfection and Perkins's performance goes without a hitch.
The only scene I still have problems with is the one in which Simon Oakland appears as a psychiatrist to explain to us Bates's motives and his story, thus spelling out what it seems an observant viewer can figure out for himself. Still, maybe viewers in 1960 weren't as immersed in psychological thrillers as we are today and so needed the explanation. This scene  anticlimactic and slightly too long  aside, the finale is still one of the most memorable and chilling in film history, and in my mind more impressive that the famed shower scene, making the entire film an unforgettable experience and one of the most effective ever made. Psycho is an essentiality to any cinema lover.