Not enough for you?
OK.
Janet Leigh.
Still no?
OK.
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates.
No?
OK.
THAT shower scene.
Still? Really?
OK.
Possibly THE film score by Bernard Hermann.
The motel.
The stuffed birds.
The dead mother.
The Freudian plot.
Still no?
You need to see a psychiatrist.
You might be a psycho.
Or dead.
Possibly both.
This is "Psycho" we're talking about. A film that is the template for ALL modern horror films. A film that was so shocking, so scandalous and so outrageous on its release that people tried to burn down cinemas...no, not really but it really was a film unlike anything ever seen before.
Alongside "Rope" this is my favourite Hitchcock film.
What do you mean you don't have a favourite?
I'm done with you.
"Psycho" is one of the definitive films. It's a film that you can rely on to impress you every time you watch it. It highlights why Hitchcock is regarded as one of the masters of cinema. A film that contained just one of the shocks that Hitch throws at you in "Psycho" would be a gem but he gives you classic scene after classic scene; killing off lead characters here, presenting dead mothers there, slashing up the faces of nosey-parker private investigators hither and shoving one of the big screens greatest killers thither.
It's influence stretches across the decades that have passed since its original release; just take a look at the list of films showing at the BFI as part of their "...in context" season in support of this re-release. Barton Fink, Deranged, Dressed to Kill, Spider, Psycho II, Halloween and many more owe a huge debt to this film.
Do you get it now?
This is what cinema was made for.
You haven't seen it?
Shame on you.
You have seen it but you don't know what all the fuss is about?
You're a pompous ass or a moron.
Possibly both.
I pity you.
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