Super Thriller!

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2010)

The film Psycho is about a woman named Marion who sneaks away from her old life, after stealing a large sum of money from her employer. On her way to see her fiancé, she finds herself at the desolate Bates Motel, whose owner turns out to be the namesake for the title of the film: a psycho. After obsessing about his dead mother for so long, he psychologically turned into her persona at times. The women Norman Bates kills, were killed when his mother's persona was in charge.
The main characters are Norman Bates, and Marion Crane, portrayed by Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, respectively.
The overall theme of this movie seems to deal with the uncertainty of unfamiliar people. When Marion, the main character, happens to meet the socially-awkward Norman Bates, she probably couldn't have imagined getting murdered by him. The message seems to be that you can never really know if the next person you meet is truly crazy.
A movie with a similar theme is Hitchhiker, in which a person driving across the country picks up a hitchhiker, who ultimately does many sadistic things to the driver. In that movie, it was also clear that you just don't know which strangers to trust.
Perhaps the most famous scene in Psycho is the one in which Marion is stabbed to death in the shower, frequently referred to as the "shower scene", in pop culture. This scene is shot and pieced together with many short clips, all shot at different angles. The constant views at different angles make the scene more suspenseful and frightening, in my opinion. Although the attacker in the scene remains obscure, it appears to be that of a woman. Ultimately, it is revealed that Norman also dresses as "Mother", whenever he thinks he is "Mother".
Another scene that best exemplifies how crazy Norman is, is the final scene, in which he's locked up in a prison cell. "Mother" is thinking that everyone has it wrong – he wouldn't even hurt a fly! The camera closes in upon him as "Mother's" thoughts are narrated. And in the close-up of Norman, an eerie feeling is truly conveyed.
When this film was first released, I think it was a first of its kind in some aspects. I think that never before, a murder had been so graphic in a movie. Although, compared to some modern movies (such as Saw), Psycho would be considered a very mild murder film.
But in any case, I believe the film was cutting-edge for the day, and remains a classic tribute to a man who truly was "Psycho".