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A boy's best friend
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Psycho
1960 | 109mins | dir: Alfred Hitchcock | starring: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins | available from Amazon
reviewed by
Lebby Eyres
[email]
uploaded: 19-04-2004
Horror fans, take note. It's time to lock your doors and close the curtains — Psycho's on the telly
In recent years, filmmakers have decided that less is more when it comes to horror. Psychological spookiness has been the order of the day in flicks like What Lies Beneath and The Ring, with the emphasis more on atmosphere and suggestion than projectile vomiting and flying limbs. But really, they’re about 44 years too late, because the best, grown-up horror you’ll ever see was made back in 1960.
Of course, everyone’s heard of Psycho. They know it’s a Hitchcock film, they know about the shower scene and they know it’s all got something to do with Norman Bates’ mother. But what most people don’t realise, unless they’ve seen it, is that Psycho is still one of the scariest films out there — and the fact that countless filmmakers since Hitchcock have stolen many of the elements of Psycho does not in any way diminish the power of the original, and best, slasher pic.
From the audacious despatching of the leading lady (Janet Leigh) a third of the way into the film, to the beady eyes of the stuffed birds in Norman Bates’ parlour, the famed director’s manipulation of our expectations and attention to detail is second to none. And Anthony Perkins, as the creepy motel owner (“Bates Motel…12 rooms, 12 vacancies”), is the ultimate psychopath: likeable, polite, deeply disturbed and of course, a very dutiful son.
So if you’re a horror fan, dismiss any worries that this film isn’t going to have those hairs rising on the back of your neck. And also forget the fact that for the first 20 minutes or so, this doesn’t even look like a horror film. Because tension is what it’s all about and, as we all know, no one does tension quite like Hitchcock.
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| "She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you?"
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| 10/10
Watch it for that shower scene alone |
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