PSYCHO: A Hitchcock classic!

When you talk about the film, Psycho, people literally jump in fright. Many will long remember this film as being the most frightening film of all-time, and the American Film Institute (AFI) recognized this film as the most heart-pounding film of all-time. When I saw Psycho at my local Blockbuster selling at only HK$25 (US$3), I really wanted to get it, because I had heard so many people saying great things about this film and because of this, I purchased the film and watched it at home.

After I watched the film, I could fully see why people had so much praise for this film, and among Alfred Hitchcock's films, this is probably his best film (with Rear Window coming in a close second).

The film starts off mild, and there is nothing in the first 30 minutes that frightens you at all. Basically, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young woman who works in real estate in Phoenix, is given $40,000 in cash by a rich but flirtatious, obviously drunk and rich tycoon (Frank Albertson), who wants to buy property for his daughter, who is about to be married. Having possession of $40,000 in cash, Marion decides to run off with the money, without telling anyone, including her sister, Lila (Vera Miles), and her boyfriend, Sam (John Gavin).

She drives deep into the middle of nowhere and tries to remain as secretive as possible. While driving in the middle of the night, it starts raining hard and it is almost impossible to see anything through all the rain, so she pulls over at the Bates Motel, which has "12 cabins and 12 vacancies". The motel owner, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), gives her a room to stay in, and he immediately falls in love with her. He even invites her to have dinner with him, but once he goes back to his house, his mother scolds him for offering any help to female strangers. He does manage to have dinner with Marion and they have a long conversation, in which Marion learns about Bates' mother, while he tells her that she should not hide anything from anyone. Inspired by his words, Marion realizes that what she has done is wrong and plans to go back to Phoenix the next morning.

However, once she gets back to her room to take a shower and go to bed, Bates' mother goes to Marion's cabin and while Marion is taking a shower, Bates' mother stabs her to death. Bates himself is shocked by what his mother has done. In an attempt to hide what just happened, he puts Marion and her belongings in the trunk of her car and drives the car into a swamp, so that nothing suspicious can be found in the cabin.

Because no one has heard about the murder and have only heard about the $40,000 gone missing with Marion, Lila comes into Sam's shop, thinking that he's hiding Marion inside his shop, and therefore, she immediately accuses Sam of playing some sort of prank on her. But that's until private dick Arbogast (Martin Balsam) comes into the shop and tells them that she has run off with the money and that he will check every hotel that is in or close to Phoenix.

Arbogast checks a plethora of hotels before he comes by to the Bates Motel to question Bates about whether Marion stayed there or not. Despite initially not giving any information to Arbogast, Bates soon tells him that she did stay there, but tells him that she had to leave the next morning. Arbogast tells this to Lila and tells her that Sam had no involvement with anything that Marion did.

However, he says nothing about the $40,000 and has no clue that Marion was, in fact, murdered.

I'll leave it here, because this basically gives you a clear outline of what happens in the film.

The film, back in 1960, was extremely controversial. The film showed Janet Leigh quite often in semi-undress and during the shower scene, nude, and because of this, the film executives from Universal Studios initially refused to show this film to the public. However, the film was shown in cinemas and despite its controversial nature, the film went on to be one of the biggest successes in 1960.

One of the reasons the film was such a huge success is because of its excellent editing and cinematography. The editing towards the end is amazing, and along with the cinematography, there are camera shots that will be drilled into your head, particularly the camera shot that looks up the stairs of Bates' house. Another fine example of editing and cinematography is the infamous shower scene. The scenes in the shower were so difficult to shoot that it took 7 days just to film the scene in the shower. What I find amazing about this scene is the fact that the shower scene was shot without showing the private parts (that sounds lame, I know) and the fact that we never actually see the knife plunge into Leigh's skin. That to me is amazing. Nowadays, these scenes show the knife plunge into the skin and we see full nudity, and it was great to see that Hitchcock did not resort to any of this in his film, and in my opinion, this is what makes the shower scene such a classic scene.

Another great thing about this film is the dark, chilling score by Bernard Herrmann. He contrasts the low-loud-slow sounds from the cellos and the screeching-high-pitched and fast work from the violins, which are most notably used in the shower scene. I think everyone has heard those high-pitch violin screeching, dissonant sounds that makes up the shower theme, and the score never fails to frighten the living daylights out of me.

The acting throughout the film was generally sound too, but special mention must go to Anthony Perkins and his portrayal of Norman Bates. Perkins clearly shows the eccentric nature of his character, and also shows him as a very nervous person successfully throughout the film. Leigh is also good as Marion Crane, particularly during the scenes that show her running away from people (she is confronted by a policeman at one point, and Leigh is clearly defensive throughout the entire conversation with the policeman, and I felt the tension that she created through her acting was done well here). The supporting cast of Miles, Gavin and Balsam were good, but do not stand out as much as the main characters do.

However, this film will be most remembered for Hitchcock's flawless direction. Like most of his other movies, he manages to change the pace of the film superbly. He makes you feel comfortable during the first 40 minutes of the film, but once you get past that mark, he frightens the hell out of you with the rest of the film and literally puts you on the edge of your seat with all the gripping suspense! Only Hitchcock has the ability to do that, and this is probably the best example of pace changing ever. I also like the way he "hides" a lot of the information in the film from the audience, and by the time you reach the ending, you are left shocked by what has happened and you literally open your mouth in amazement, thinking, "how the hell did he manage to hide so much from us?!" There are, however, a few minor glitches in the ending, but overall, Hitchcock was more than successful in creating such a heart-stopping and thrilling film.

Psycho is undoubtedly one of the best horror-thriller films ever made. This film, however, is not for the soft-hearted, since some parts of the film are gruesome and terrifying. But, if you think you are up to watching this film, then by all means, watch the film and be scared. Very scared.

Thanks for reading the review.