Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock is a must see

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2015)

Being often nicknamed, "The Master of Suspense", Alfred Hitchcock certainly does not disappoint in his black and white film, Psycho (1960), with his certain use of psychological examination of his characters that will have you intrigued from the very beginning of his film. Psycho is a classic horror film that challenges the genre for a contemporary audience, a rush of chaotic fear and madness as suspenseful as you would have predicted from the movie that started the slasher genre itself.
Despite a slower pace and dated special effects, it's a well crafted if unconventional horror film. Along with it's creativity, it has a more engaging plot filled with more visual disturbing than almost any other film in the horror genre.
Hitchcock does this by building a connection to his audience to the characters. By getting into the main character, Marion Crane's (Janet Leigh) mind at an early start of the film, has you not only engaged but intensively worried already of what will happen to her. Being a secretary in Phoenix, Marion's conscience drives her insane when she decides to steal 40,000 dollars from a client in order to run away with her love, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). With an eerie feel, you are sucked into the movie trying to figure out how and why things are happening to her. The buildup adds to the intensity of the unknown of who is the killer and why their motives are the way that they are.
As Marion Crane tries to run farther away from her problems, not only has she found herself in a huge rainstorm but also exhausted from the endless thoughts of her conscience mind. Having to pull over she is luckily able to find the flickering lights of the Bates Motel to stay the night. There she meets the polite, man of few words, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Norman welcomes Marion to her stay by casual talk over sandwiches and milk. Norman then explains his interest in taxidermy and his unique relationship with his mother. Hitchcock sets the scene of this encounter by his ability of using foreshadowing with little details of Norman's parlor where the scene takes place. It is there where we find out more about his overbearing, domineering mother. Throughout the entire film, viewers have a sense of suspense always being displayed whether it is through the mysterious music, the director's use of certain angles, or even just the unknown of what we as the audience understand. Hitchcock finds a way of having you always questioning and in a way, overwhelmed with emotions while watching his films. Viewers that are from my generation could say that to be even considered a "horror" film or even a "thriller" there must be a certain amount of violence or gore to reach this criteria.
However, in 1960, horrified viewers saw Psycho as such a thrilling film and to be surprisingly not explicitly violent which our generation today would be uncommonly found in the latest horror, thriller films. Hitchcock doesn't use the violent gestures to make his film what it is. It is about the psychological intellect that he so deliberately has the audience feel. It is about the buildup and the mysterious overall mood of his masterpiece that has you leaving wanting more.
If the definition of a good thriller to you is gore and violence, Psycho wouldn't necessarily be the movie for you. Not meaning to say that there isn't a scene or two that will take you by surprise, but there is so much more than the gruesome feel to this movie. It is Hitchcock's way of giving his audience enough suspense, curiosity, and most of all, that thrilling feel that makes the must see Psycho what it is, a worldwide phenomenon.