Psycho

Rating: 6/10 (7 November 2010)

I didn't really like Hitchcock's Psycho.
The plot is way dated by today's standards. You can tell the film was made specifically to shock audiences in 1960, but today it fails miserably to be convincing; especially because of the film's constant attempts to keep you convinced that Norman's mother is the real killer. The film stresses this so much that other aspects of the plot suffer. For example, characters hardly ever have any logical thoughts/theories and don't make logical decisions or actions. I pretty much figured out that he'd already killed his mom from the moment her "character" is introduced. I'm sure the film was fantastic when it first came out, but to me it just isn't any more.
I can understand why many people would find the film to be really good. It was definitely groundbreaking and utilized a lot of interesting camera and editing techniques. Also I thought that Anthony Perkins' performance was great. However, it is by no means a timeless film like most of the movies we've seen in class. I'm sure I missed some deeper meaning or theme in Physco, but I was far too distracted to think about it and could hardly enjoy the film.