Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

Rating: Null/10 (21 March 2003)

Starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, and Janet Leigh as Marion. 4/4, My IMDB Rating: 9.0/10. Rated R for Violence and Brief Nudity.
The now familiar plot concerns Norman Bates, a nervous, bird-like motel proprietor who lives under the domineering influence of his aged invalid mother. Norman takes care of Mother and, in return, she protects the disturbingly boyish man from temptation and corruption, particularly in the form of attractive single women who come to stay at the motel. Marion Crane stops at the Bates Motel after impulsively fleeing from her workplace with a large sum of stolen money. She had hoped this cash would allow her married lover, Sam Loomis, to marry her. After chatting with Norman, Marion appears to resolve to return the money. However, someone intervenes, leaving a bloody mess for Norman to clean up. After he's scrubbed down the bathroom, the dutiful son places the corpse in the trunk of Crane's traded car and sinks all the evidence in a nearby swamp. The situation gets tense for Norman when Marion's sister, Lila, Marion's lover, Sam, and private investigator Milton Arbogast arrive to ask some questions.

This movie is an all-time classic. Horror at it's finest. Mystery also at it's finest. Anthony Perkins was so good that I think that he should have been atleast nominated for an Academy Award. Although I thought that Psycho II was surprisingly good, I felt that Psycho III, IV, and Psycho(1998) were very inferior. Perhaps no other film changed Hollywood's perception of the horror film so drastically as did PSYCHO. Nowadays, when any psychological thriller featuring a loony with a knife is designated "Hitchcockian" in some quarters, it's easy to forget just what a dramatic change of pace this was for Hitchcock. A great catch of the day!