Where It All Started

Rating: 10/10 (7 May 2007)

The Plot = In the hopes of living happily ever after with her boyfriend (Gavin) whose getting divorced from his ex wife and still paying her keep, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals 40 grand from her place of work and leaves town and ends up at the creepy "Bates Motel" where she meets the shy Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and well lets just say everything goes wrong for her after that.
Well what can I say about Psycho that hasn't been said a thousand times before, well nothing only that I agree with all the hype and excellent reviews that I've read and has definitely stood the test of time through the years.
In my opinion Psycho is definitely the one that ranks the top of the genre list, and if it wasn't for "Psycho" we've probably wouldn't have had all the great slasher flicks through the years such as the successful "Friday The 13th series", Halloween series, Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Black Christmas. All of which pays dues to this masterpiece, I mean if Psycho weren't made we may wouldn't have had all them slasher movies. I mean Psycho in my opinion inspired all these movies in some way but directer Brian De Palma is the one who uses Psycho/Hitchcock idea for many of his movies.
Shot in black and white which does put some small minded people off and in my opinion it shouldn't, I think it wouldn't have had the same creepy atmoshere if it was shot in colour just look at the terrible remake which came out in 1998, but the less said about that the better i'd say. Brilliantly written and structured screenplay wouldn't have been half as effective with the proper casting, but Psycho definitely delivered in that department with performances from Janet Leigh who plays the unlucky Marion Crane who gives an vulnerable and sympathetic performance that had me siding with her despite her dishonest actions, Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates) was mesmerising in his touching, unsettling, insecure and layered role which nobody else in this world would ever compare to, I'd say he gives an Oscar worthy performance. Vera Miles (Lila Crane) Marion's sister gives a good performance as does Arbogast the unlucky private detective played by Martin Balsam gave an interesting performance. John Gavin (Sam Loomis) was OK, underplayed but didn't really do much.
All in all Every element came together here to make this a visually arresting picture, directer Alfred Hitchcock was truly one of the greatest of all time and was definitely spot on with Psycho which is definitely his finest film ever.