#44 Psycho

Psycho (1960)

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Never trust someone who has taxidermy as their hobby!

Recently there’s been quite a lot of interest in looking back at Alfred Hitchcock, with two biopics released about him and his work. ‘Psycho’ is regarded to be one of his finest triumphs, and it really is very good.

When Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals from her employer she heads to her boyfriend to start a new life with him. However, she’s forced to stop for the night in the torrential rain, and pulls into the Bates Motel, where she’s pleasantly welcomed by Norman Bates, who offers her some food and conversation. She’s then brutally murdered in the shower. Her sister, a private investigator, and her boyfriend Sam try to find where she has gone, leading them back to the motel, and young Mr Bates and his elderly mother.

It’s a well-known film, widely talked about, and most things will be known to many, but I’ll avoid spoilers myself just in case. I must be honest I knew a lot of what to expect, though still I felt tense watching it. Anthony Perkins is superb as Norman Bates, there’s a real skill to how he seems to lovely at first, then the cracks start showing, but also how he tries to cover those cracks and maintain the facade.

It’s considered to be a horror, and is in fact #1 on IMDb’s top horror films list. By modern standards of a horror film ,it’s really very tame, even the famous shower scene doesn’t show very much at all and blood is kept within low levels. The scares come from Perkins’ performance and how the truth of his situation unfolds.