THE horror film!

Rating: 10/10 (15 January 2007)

Psycho is THE ultimate horror movie. What a brilliantly told story and equally powerful acting from all concerned. This movie details the aspects of shock and the macabre to chilling effect, and surely scared the wits out of cinema-goers back in 1960! Of course back then, a gruesome murder wasn't really seen on film before, not such a gruesome killing anyway, but it's highly common today. Hitchcock delivers a heart-stopping, gripping movie which doesn't let down for a single second. It's much better that the film was released in black and white; had it had been in colour, the fear and suspense may have been lost to some effect.
Janet Leigh portrayed Marion Crane with wonderful agility, but we all know the real star of the show was (and is) Anthony Perkins. Norman Bates is probably the most twisted and scariest characters in the history of film, and Perkins delivers the vulnerabilities we see in Bates to stunning effect. I have huge respect for Vera Miles, and she was also well cast as Marion's concerned sister, Lila. A shame she has retired from the acting world...
The suspense to Psycho starts right from the word go, what with the extremely haunting music to the opening titles, which continues in certain scenes throughout the film. An equally powerful and shocking ending too...
Psycho is simply the ultimate horror movie, it hasn't been bettered, and cannot be bettered. The gruesome 'shower scene' featured not one violent shot - just illusion. But boy what illusion! Terrific, brilliant, excellent, superb, I can't go on enough!