Chilling, even after all this time (spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 2004)

The recent passing of Janet Leigh reminded me that I hadn't yet seen the movie which will undoubtedly stand as her legacy. Sure, forty-plus years of pop-culture saturation had made me aware of the basic outline of "Psycho"--the plot, the music, the shower scene--but never had I sat down and watched it from beginning to end. Well, no time like the present.
What is it that makes "Psycho" haunt and disquiet us, even today? Certainly there are plenty of movies out there that are more gruesome, with higher body counts and more graphic portrayals of sudden and bloody death. And there are many films good at providing sudden scares and shocking denouements. Yet so few make us glance uneasily over our shoulders or shiver in quiet moments long after they've ended. Perhaps it's because Alfred Hitchcock has created a picture of evil that is not only very real on screen, but is also disturbingly recognizable and accessible.
In "Psycho," we are reminded that darkness and death are far closer to us than we like to believe. That any person, given desperation enough and temptation enough, might resort to grand theft as Marion Crane (Leigh) does.
That someone so shy and genial as Norman Bates (played to perfection by Anthony Perkins) can be possessed of terrible secrets. That the space between life and death is a brief one indeed, one which we can cross (or be pushed over) at any time or place: through a door, at the top of the stair, or--of course--when we are naked and vulnerable in the shower. We don't think about these things; we cannot if we are to function in life. But Hitchcock makes us pause and remember them for a few moments.
With so much focus on that famous shower scene, it's easy to forget that there are many moments of brilliance here. Such as Marion's clearly-drawn paranoia when she's absconding with that money. The deliberate manner in which Norman cleans up after "Mother." The death of Detective Arbogast, in its own way as sudden and shocking as poor Marion's demise. And the final revelation, which was no doubt a surprise to the first audiences and which now in retrospect makes the rest of the film even more chilling.
And of course, there's Norman Bates himself. Nervous, accommodating, and seemingly harmless (at least until he's revealed spying on Marion's room), the last person you'd expect to have blood on his hands. But after all, isn't that what we always hear people saying on the news, as some neighbor or relative is taken away for a brutal crime? "I can hardly believe it...he was quiet and kept to himself, but he seemed like such a nice person." Norman could be anyone we know--and that alone makes him more frightening than all the supernatural monsters and slashers you could name.