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| Psycho
Year: 1960
Classification: Horror
Directed:
- Alfred Hitchcock
Actors/Actresses:
- Anthony Perkins
- Anne Heche
- John Woo
- Julianne Moore
- Rita Wilson
- Janet Leigh
- Robert Forster
Gripping Melodrama at Local Motel
VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS
* Psycho is a nightmare film. Not because it is scary - because it isn't particularly frightening. It is deeply unsettling, perhaps, more than scary. ''The Birds'' left me in shivers; this one only left me with deep elusive emotions and the memory of Norman's maniacal, psychotic smile at the close of the film, an image which almost twelve hours later has not left me. Any more than has ''Mother's'' voice. I suppose this film is a study: a disturbing, but true look into the human nature. We all could be psycho killers if we had been in his place, and although we cringe at the horror and sickness of Norman's twisted mind and split personality, we find it hard to despise him.
* Norman Bates looks at first glance as innocent as anyone - he is really quite ordinary. Who would suspect he is a maniac scizophrenic? After all, practically anyone can acquire the aggravating habit of continuous candy corn consumption, or be twittery and stuttering, or look creepy in certain lights. But the moment the illumined ''Bates Motel'' sign comes into view through the weeping night, it is an edgy feeling that crawls over the viewer. But why? The cabins are no different from many others; in fact they are quite charming. Still, a peculiar air seems to be pervading the place, an air of dread, uncertainty and darkness. Not only the darkness of the hour, but of the mind. Perhaps it is the old house that stands guard of the cabins which is so menacing; perhaps she is protective of them. She looks as though she could reach out and destroy anything which threatened the solitude and silence of those twelve vacancies.
* Mother's room is heavy, oppressive in its ornateness and antiquity. The imprint she left on the bed direct's one's mind - rather unsettlingly - to the thought of those plaster casts made from the hollows left by the victims of Pompeii. Trapped for years, perhaps, leaving a mark that will take many more years to efface. Norman's room is suggestive of the child he still is. His life as Norman ended at five, after all. When did he have a chance to grow up? At five his father died, and Norman began his long slow descent into madness. His toys have never been taken out of the place. The record in the player is Beethoven's ''Eroica'': powerful music, almost light at times, frightfully aggressive at other moments. The motive goes in circles, first loudly, then softly, sometimes overlapping, never really reaching a resolution until the slamming close.
* Mother Bates herself isn't all that frightening. I expect we are too desensitised by this time - after all, one see hundreds of such masks and worse at Hallowe'en time. No matter how revolting they may be, such things no longer frighten us as they would have done the general public in 1960. Lila touches her shoulder; the corpse turns about - eyeless, all smile and teeth and grey hair and shawl. When Norman comes in, looking ridiculous and far too tall in Mother's dressing-gow
Thirty-seven years later -- Still a Shocker!
Psycho is probably the most "cinematic" and arguably the best of Alfred Hitchcock's American films. Even today, thirty-seven years after its initial release, the film is still powerful, unsettling stuff. It's distinctly different from Hitchcock's other works, dealing as it does with unpleasant, graphic murders among ordinary, even bland, characters. The acting, especially from the often under-rated Janet Leigh and the subtle, incisive Anthony Perkins, is uniformly above grade. And that shower scene -- even after repeated viewings, it retains its ability to unsettle and disturb the viewer! Refreshingly free of the complicated visual "tricks" and plot twists of many of Hitchcock's other films, the rather straight-forward narrative draws us in until we're hooked, then pulls the rug out from under us in the best thriller fashion. The carefully fleshed-out characters are perhaps equalled, in Hitchcock's ouevre, only by those in "Shadow of a Doubt", another film set uncharacteristically among realistic middle-class people rather than the high-society and spy types that populate so many of Hitchcock's films. Hitchcock himself was reportedly suprised by the overwhelming success of a movie he viewed, originally, as an experiment -- an attempt to bring TV production techniques and talent to a low-budget (for Hitchcock) film. Clearly, like many artists, he underestimated his own masterpiece. See it! And shiver! END
Not his BEST, but FULL of exciting scenes
I`ve seen this film numerous times and I have always found it a bit cold, made without passion. Sure the shower-scene in particular is a mind-blower, but Hitchcock was much better off in the suspense-genre... This story simply isn`t interesting enough. It reason may be that it always had a GREAT reputation and everyone who ever saw it knew if by heart and thus destroyed the first viewing of others... Another factor is that Janet Leigh is much 2 pretty and ladylike for her role. When I saw Anne Heche in the 1998 movie I realised that H E R Marion was indeed a low-life, tramp - sort of - who jumped at the chance of doing something stupid 2 her employer. Janet Leigh`s Marion is never at any moment stupid... Alas, Anne was much more satisfying, as were Viggo Mortensen and Julianne Moore.
John Gavin and Vera Miles are lifeless - cardboard stereotypes and that leaves us only with Martin Balsam and the great Anthony Perkins. THEY breath life into their characters and are the main reason I like this version. William Macy and Vince Vaughn repeated their roles, but eh..... hehehehe???????? Let there be silence. In 1983, Perkins reprised his role as Norman Bates to even better effect in the splendid PSYCHO II.
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