Pure Cinema

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 2005)

The hardest movies to review are the accepted classics. What can be said that hasn't already been said? And how can I write a glowing review that offers up genuine love and appreciation for the film, and not just regurgitate some propaganda that Psycho is the greatest slasher ever made? Well, here goes nothing . . .
From imitation and its popularity among film scholars and horror buffs, Psycho has no more surprises left  that's a given. However, Sir Alfred Hitchcock foresaw this problem and infused Psycho (as well as his other pictures) with the more effective element: suspense. We know where, why, and when the murders take place. So what? The key to Hitchcock's famous bomb analogy is that suspense comes from the audience's knowledge of the bomb, not a lack of knowledge. We know, but the characters do not. That's suspense.
I watched Psycho again just recently, and felt an unprecedented excitement as those famous Bernard Herrmann strings began playing and Saul Bass' credits filled the screen. I was watching one of my favorite movies again, and I couldn't wait to dive into the film, itself. I couldn't wait for that opening shot of Phoenix  I looked forward to seeing that look of horror on Marion Crane's face as her bosses crosses the street in front of her car while she's escaping to Fairvale. I wanted to see Anthony Perkins to appear on screen with his brilliantly subdued performance of Norman Bates, and I leaned closer to the screen and smiled when he says, "We all go a little crazy sometimes."
Needless to say, I love this movie.
What amazes me about Psycho, and I didn't consciously realize this until reading the Truffaut book "Hitchcock", is how the film manages to smoothly switch protagonists midway through the film (from Marion to Norman). As Hitchcock and Truffaut talk in the book, when the car is pushed into the swamp and it stops  the audience's heart stops. We want the car to sink, and we want Norman to succeed. More amazingly is how even after knowing all the revelations the film has to offer  the truth about Norman Bates and his mother  we still want that car to sink. We still sympathize with Norman Bates in that moment.
That, in my opinion, is what truly separates Hitchcock's Psycho from the pack. Sir Alfred actually made us care about his killer. I can't think of any other slasher film that attempts this and succeeds. Most slashers are content to have a killing machine under a mask, but only Hitchcock has the balls to show us the face of his killer. Only Hitchcock would dare to make his killer a full-fledged characters with intelligent thoughts and complex emotions, and only Hitchcock was good enough to pull it off.
As if that's not enough, in the final act Hitch plays the audience like an organ and switches our sympathies once again (from Norman to Lila)  and all the while, the audience never really consciously recognizes that their loyalties fly from character to character on a whim. We want Marion to succeed because the man she's stealing from is a prick, we want Norman to succeed because of the love for his mother and his humanness in reacting to the murder, and we want Lila to succeed because we want to know the truth behind Norman Bates' mother.
One of my favorite moments in all of cinema occurs in Psycho. Watch the film while Sam Loomis is searching and calling out for Detective Arbogast at the Bates' motel. Then Hitch cuts to a slow fluid push in on Anthony Perkins at the swamp, and Perkins looks up at the camera with a mixture of emotions in his eyes. It's one of the simplest camera movements in the film. Perkins doesn't say a word - he just quietly looks on. Yet it's one of the most effective shots in the entire film. A simple movement and silent look is all Hitchcock needs.
When the marketing gimmicks have all been forgotten, when all the surprises are known, and when imitators have sucked away and blatantly stolen whatever they can get to work for 45 years, Psycho still stands as solid as ever. It did not need the shock of killing its star, nor did it need the shocking revelation at the end, it didn't need the gimmick that "audiences won't be admitted after the start of the picture." Psycho works just as well without them because Hitchcock delivered great characters played by competent actors, and he let the audience know there's a bomb waiting to go off that none of those characters know about.