Hitch at his best...a preview of things to come

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2002)

Having grown-up in the late 70's and early 80's watching such "scary movies" as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Holloween" and of course "Friday the 13th", I thought I knew what scary was, that is until I saw Psycho.
Psycho was the only movie that truly scared me, because something like that could really happen. :::::Spoiler coming:::::
Let's face it Norman Bates was Ted Bundy, the Hillside Strangler and the Son of Sam all wrapped up in a neat little albeit warped package! He was a serial killer before there was such a thing in mainstream media...I even wonder if there was such a term as "serial killer" when the movie was filmed, (if anyone knows please let me know).
A young woman stops at a roadside motel to spend the night, she meets an unassuming shy and attractive young man. She checks into her room and she takes her last shower. But the question is who kills her, is it Norman or his mother? Regardless of who it is, the point is that what happen isn't as far farfetched as hockey mask wearing madman or a halloween mask wearing escapee from a mental hospital, stalking his sister, Norman is really the boogie man. He is what goes bump in the night, he is the stranger that your mother told you not to get into his car! However unlike Bundy and the others, you actually find yourself feeling sorry for Norman Bates, he he truly tortured and definetely psychotic, but you really want to know why he is in such a state, what drove him to madness and then ultimately murder.
Psycho was a rude awakening for movie audiences in the 60's, it was a lost of innocence. How appropriate that a movie that started off the 60's was a preview of things to come...the murders of Martin, Bobby, John, Malcom and Medger. The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement and race riots in Los Angeles and Detroit. I may be over-simplifying things but if you step back and take a look I may not be too far off.