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Psycho - Collector's Edition

Psycho - Collector's Edition

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $14.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works at a Subconscious Level
Review: What is fascinating to me about this film is Hitchcock's clever use of subconscious devices that add to the sense of dread but do not register at a conscious level unless you are looking for them. I began to notice them only after reading some commentary on the film, and watching it a few times. Let me give a few examples. (1) When Marion stops in the rainstorm at the Bates Motel, the windshield wipers on her car continue flashing back and forth, cutting like a knife. (2) Marion's motel room at the Bates Motel looks remarkably similar to her room at home, emphasizing her inability to escape her problems. Also, the bathroom is incredibly well-lit; we notice this long before she decides to take her shower. (3) After the shower murder, Norman yells "Oh, God, Mother, Blood!" As Norman comes into view and collapses against a wall, we hear four chords from the shower murder scene, hinting to us that Norman is connected to the murder! (4) The next scene is in the hardware store, where huge rakes are pointing outward at us, like the birds scratching and clawing that Norman mentioned in his parlor. (5) When Norman is talking to Marion about eating like a bird, he says, "actually, that expression's a fals- fals- falsity." The reason he stumbles over this phrase is that what most people would say, a "fallacy," sounds too much like "phallus" and Norman's got real problems about sex, as we know. The thing I enjoy most about this movie is looking for these imbedded tricks, as well as Hitchcock's grim sense of humor ("Mother's not herself today, you know.") This makes it more interesting than the average horror film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: psycho(collectors)
Review: Well what is there left to say that has not been said said here already? This is the first DVD i ever bought and let me say it was no disappointment. The extras r to die 4 especially the making of documentary. It almost an hour and a half long! A have DVD for any collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Horror Masterpiece -- Get It on DVD!
Review: This film was listed 18th on the American Film Institute's 100greatest films of all time and I still think it was underrated. Fromthe memorable performances by Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh and Martin Balsam to the spooky black and white cinematography to Bernard Herrmann's often imitated but never duplicated score, Psycho is about as close to perfect as a film can get. The only possible way this movie could be improved would be to somehow replace the overacted hysterical performance by Vera Miles as Lila Crane with that of Julianne Moore -- the ONLY thing better about the remake. By the way, those of you who actually think Gus Van Sandt's remake is better than Hitch's original need psychiatric care more than Norman Bates. Those of you who are fans of the original and do not have a DVD player should plunk down $300 and buy one so you can see this DVD edition. It's spectacular! Besides the usual biographies on the cast and crew, theatrical trailers, and still photos, this DVD edition contains many more valuable nuggets like the inclusion of a version of the shower scene without music. This enables the viewer to both hear the sound effects more clearly and to appreciate what an enormous contribution Bernard Herrmann's great score made to Psycho. The documentary, likewise, is not just another boring rehash of facts everyone knows, but an extremely informative record of the film with dozens of fascinating interviews with, among others, Janet Leigh, Hilton Green, Joseph Stefano and Patricia Hitchcock. In addition, the DVD includes great still photos as well as Psycho posters from both the U.S. and foreign releases. The DVD edition even includes Saul Bass' original storyboards for the shower scene (for those of you who are wondering, Janet Leigh, in the documentary, states rather emphatically that Hitchcock, and not Saul Bass, directed the shower scene). In short, if you are a fan of this great movie, you must get the DVD version -- you're missing out on so much with just the VHS tape. Finally, to all those people who gave Psycho a negative review, no one is saying that Rosemary's Baby, Night of the Living Dead, Halloween, etc. are not great horror films, but NONE of the them would have been made without Psycho! George Romero has stated very clearly that the final scene in Night of the Living Dead is an homage to the fruit cellar sequence in Psycho. Stephen King, one of the greatest horror writers of all time, has stated numerous times that Psycho is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest horror films of all time. Perhaps the thing that galls me the most, however, are the reviews that state that Psycho is not scary because it doesn't reach the level of gore seen in modern horror films. That's simply disgusting! You don't have to have eyeballs being ripped out, brains being splattered on walls and guts being spilled all over the floor to make a great horror film! Alfred Hitchcock had the great intelligence to realize that you did not need to stick the camera inside someone's guts to frighten. Not once in the course of Psycho do you actually see the knife penetrate flesh. Instead of splattering us with gore, Hitchcock leaves enough to the imagination to let our minds fill in the missing details. It's sad that so many movie fans these days are so desensitized to graphic violence and so lacking in imagination that they have to have gore spilling all over their screen in order to be scared. Thankfully positive reviews of this film seem to outnumber the negative reviews by a wide margin. Alfred Hitchcock was a genius -- one of the greatest, if not THE greatest director of all time -- and nowhere is that genius more evident than in Psycho.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Norman?
Review: I don't even have to write a review on this film. Everyone knows this is a classic. One of Hitchcock's best. Anthony Perkins was perfect. No sequels were necessary although Psycho II was interesting. The re-make proves how low Hollywood will sink to make a buck. This is a must have for any film collector.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best DVD I've seen yet
Review: This is not only a wonderful movie, but THE best DVD I've seen yet, with more features than you'll know what to do with.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Thriller.
Review: Director Alfred Hitchcock make this film and it`s turn out to be one of the best thriller of all time. Anthony Perkins is Great as Norman Bates. Janet Leigh, she also Great in this role. Excellent Screen Play by Joseph Stefano, he also wrote the last Psycho film and the remake Great Collector`s Editon On DVD.

DVD`s has an clear non-anamorphic Widescreen(1.85:1) transer and An fine Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. Grade:A.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The tension is in the deception
Review: Many things make this movie incredible and they are often rightfully touched upon: Hitch's cinemetography, the shower scene, the Oedipal overtones, its influence on the weaker slasher films to come, etc. But what I think seperates this movie from other horror or thriller flicks, is that the tension is really only created a couple of times by the usual prospect of someone jumping out and attacking the heroine or hero. This is why people that are used to slasher films often don't understand it. There are probably only three truly frieghtening scenes in this movie, but the entire movie is tense. Why? Because this is a movie about the tension created when people are lying and in danger of getting caught, and it builds, and builds and builds. Amazingly, The Master manipulates your emotions so that you sympathize with the person telling the lie. Recall the tense scene where Leigh buys the car and deceives the salesman and the police officer. Recall her deception of young Norman (who is deceiving all of us.) And incredibly we feel for Norman playing the dutiful son cleaning up the murder. We watch him as he squirms under the detectives interrogation. Then Hitchcock turns it up another notch when Sam Loomis and Vivien's sister pose as a couple and try and deceive Norman, who is lying himself. We, the audience, are in on both sides as they play their game of deception, wondering who will catch who first. We beautifully watch their nuiances, and mind games and as each party gets closer to the truth, the tension continues to rachet up.

Sure, there are knives and preserved cadavars, but the real terror of Psycho is the fear of being caught in a lie. That is its essense, that is what is so beautifully done.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: NOT a great classic
Review: This movie was so un-scary that the only reason it is a 'horror' film is the dishonor it gave to the name Hitchcock. All the 'shower scene' did for me was give me a roaring migrane with all that squalking and squeaking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic
Review: What cant one say about this movie.All the cast was brilliant.The shower scene is one of the most famous in history.Good example for a charecter study movie

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This movie's okay
Review: Evil office girl steals a bunch of money and tries to flea the scene only to end up getting killed by a guy with a family problem: he dresses up like his mom and kills people. Very fun but a little boring at times. Gotta love that theme song. Popcorn, Pepsi and Pizza


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