Rating: 
Summary: Thirty-seven years later -- Still a Shocker!
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: 12 Cabins, 12 Vacancies...
Review: Janet Leigh plays Marion Crane, a woman on the run, after she steals money from a rich client. She wants to convince the man, (John Gavin) with whom she is having an affair, to leave his wife for her. On her way to tell him, she gets lost, and ends up on a deserted stretch of road. In order to seek shelter from a storm, she stops at the Bates Motel, where she meets Norman (Anthony Perkins)...This of course is the set up for Director Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic, PSYCHO. The movie is based on the book written by Robert Bloch. The performance by Perkins ranks as one of the best ever on the big screen. He is Norman Bates. The scene between him and Martin Balsam, in particular, is of interest because of the way Perkins plays it. He goes from being fiiendly to nervous in a matter of seconds. I have always been a Hitchcock fan since I studied his work in film school. The reason that the film holds up today is because of its timeless quality. The film seems less "dated" than some movies made recently. The film has great cinematography, editing , and a memorable score. The film is, without a doubt, a top favorite of mine. The producers of the DVD have done an outstanding job and made a great disc. The 90 minute documentary on the making of the film is just about perfect.. The interviews with some of the people involved in the production really made me feel like I was there to see it all happen. There are also some neat trailers and newsreel footage for you to enjoy. Truly, a great DVD, for one of the best movies ever made.
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Summary: THE LANDMARK OF MODERN HORROR MOVIES!
Review: What more can be said about Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror movie PSYCHO that hasn't been said already? By now everybody knows what this movie's all about, so why go into it? Because without PSYCHO, the horror movie genre would be a whole lot different if this wasn't made! Just think about the different kinds of horror movies that have come out in the forty-four years since PSYCHO scared the hell out of audiences: the giallo in Italy (Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, Dario Argento's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED just to name a few, Lucio Fulci's DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING, the list goes on), the slasher movie (John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN and Sean S. Cunningham's FRIDAY THE 13TH among many others), and all kinds of murder-mystery films. PSYCHO did for horror movies what The Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show four years later did for rock music!
I remember the first time I ever saw PSYCHO. I was 16 and just entering the 10th grade when I watched PSYCHO on my personal black-and-white TV on Channel 17. Man, that blew my mind out of the water! To this very day, that shower scene is ten times scarier than any gore scene in any horror movie (ironically, the shower scene wasn't that very graphic). Now I have it on DVD and I saw it a few days ago and it's still terrifying!
And to the Unbiased Movie Critic, an Unbiased Correction: The 1998 version IS a remake! The original PSYCHO came out in 1960, THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS BEFORE GUS VAN SANT EVEN APPROACHED THIS STORY! It's fine if you prefer the 1998 version, some people do, but please get your facts straight. Anyway, this DVD offers PSYCHO in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, along with a truckload of extras! So check into the Bates Motel and be careful in the shower! And remember, "We all go a little mad sometimes."
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Summary: Good Evening. I have some news that will delight you.
Review: Psycho has and always will be a great story. Being the peek film of Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, And Hitchcock himself, Hitchy proved to the doubtful Paramount Studios that a film shot in Black and White with the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" TV crew, and costing under $1,000,000.00 could become an instant classic. Universal loved it so much that they bought the rights to all Hitchcock's Paramount films. The Shower Scene is instantly embedded in the mind of the person(s) that sees it for the first time. And the murder sequence of Arbogast (Martin Balsam) was a good example of effects. And seeing "Mother" near the climax is enough to freak any viewer out of their mind. I believe screenwriter Joseph Stefano was aiming for a more psychological image than Robert Bloch was in the book, because I couldn't imagine an overweight, drunken, peeping tom, and just "Ed Gein" Evil Norman Bates on the screen as Bloch had written him compared to the slim, sober, peeping tom, and down right polite Norman Bates that Stefano had created. I think many viewers mistake Norman Bates for being a gay man whenever they see him as "Mother", ignorant to the fact that Norman was trying to keep "Mother's" image alive since he bumped her off. If Norman was gay, as Hitchcock said in the trailer for Psycho, "I Won't dwell upon it." This keeping the image of the killer's mother alive can also be seen arguably very well in "The Silence Of The Lambs". All in all Psycho has been a classic tale of suspence, mystery, and horror. If there's anyone who hasn't seen it at all, they're missing out on a cinematic masterpiece.
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Summary: One of the greatest movies ever made.
Review: Psycho ranks easily within my top five personal favorite movies. It is simply one of the most finely crafted, exceptionally told, and deeply terrifying stories ever put on film. I wouldn't know how many times I've seen it in all. Though I'm only 22 years old, so I haven't seen it 100 times like I'm sure many older movie buffs have. It certainly seems like the definitive Hitchcock film, and certainly encapsulates most of his cinematic ideals and themes (as does the earlier Rear Window). You've got the blonde woman, you've got sexual repression, you've got mother-son relationships, you've got dark humor, you've got the MacGuffin (the forty-thousand dollars), you've got murders and of course Hitchcock's usual suspense and brilliance as a visual storyteller. Hitch used his camera as well as other directors used words. Often he used the camera in place of words, telling bits of the story with little more than images and even sometimes gestures. The story was based loosely on the story of Ed Gein, the whacko murderer of the 50s. Novelist Robert Bloch based his novel on Gein, who was turned into Norman Bates by Hitchcock and screenwriter Joseph Stefano. Psycho was a pretty small production, especially when compared to the grandeur of his two previous films, North By Northwest and Vertigo. To save on production costs, he used the crew from his TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. However, this "small production" turned out to be one of the most influential films in cinema history and a box office phenomenon. Psycho, as much as the TV show, made Alfred Hitchcock into a household name. "See it from the beginning - or not at all!" read the lobby cards at the theaters. Indeed Hitchcock asked theaters not to admit viewers after the film had started. Probably because of the fact that Janet Leigh, the leading actress and advertised as such, was killed off within the first 50 minutes. An outrageous idea at the time. Who on earth would have their main character, played by a very well-known actress, killed in the first half of the movie? Only the master of suspense. Nearly as outrageous as this was having the killer be a man dressed as a woman, and have the victim be killed while naked in the shower. These ideas would be commonplace nowadays, but things were very different in 1960 upon Psycho's release. The film was also the first to show a toilet flushing on-screen. The really interesting thing about Psycho is the little details. Subtleties that enhance the film and add a layer of depth to the experience. Things such as the symbolism that Hitchcock uses. The theme of birds, for example. Marion and Norman talk about birds. Norman is a taxidermist as a hobby and has stuffed birds in his office. There are pictures of birds outside the shower where Marion is killed. Indeed when Norman discovers the body, he knocks a picture of a bird off the wall. Hitchcock devotes a cutaway shot to this, showing the picture land on the floor. Bird, of course, being slang for woman, a "bird" has just been knocked off. Norman did not intend to knock off the picture, perhaps just as he didn't intend to knock off Marion. Mother did, however, intend such. The film's opening shot could be seen as a bird's-eye-view. Marion's last name is "Crane", a type of bird. Of course, Hitchcock devoted his next film to birds of a different sort. There is much symbolism apart from the bird element. The changing color of Marion's bra for example. Early in the film, Marion wears a white bra. Later, after stealing the money, she wears a black one. Also note at the very end of the film, the shot of Mother's skull superimposed over Norman's face. It's subtle things like this contribute to the overall effect of the film. Sexual jealousy is a big part of the story. Norman Bates, who lives with half of his mind dominated by his deceased mother, is constantly in fear of Mother. He's purely a momma's boy. Mother, however, is jealous of any females that try to get close to Norman and promptly does away with them. "I won't have you bringing strange young girls in for supper! By candlelight, I suppose, in the cheap erotic fashion of young men with cheap erotic minds." Sexual repression again. Norman expresses his desire to defy Mother, and Marion is his opportunity. It's a story with many complexities and many themes, which can be discovered with multiple viewings. . Suffice to say that Psycho is one of the very best films ever made and you should see it many times. Don't just see it, but experience it.
Rating:
Summary: It's very simple
Review: If you saw this and don't recognize it as a great film for a number of reasons, you need to stop watching movies and stick to TV sit-coms. Forever.
Rating: 
Summary: You¿d be Psycho if you thought this film was the greatest
Review: Psycho is the only Alfred Hitchcock film that I have ever seen. I have heard that all of his movies are great. If his other films are like Psycho I am not impressed.
Psycho starts out with Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) with her lover Sam Loomis (played by John Cavin). This scene talks about the one thing that is keeping them apart, money problems. The scene is also introduces the two characters. After that scene is over Marion is at work. A client comes and Marion's boss eventually tells her to put the client's $40,000 into a safe deposit box. She says that she has a headache and that she will go home but put the money in the safe deposit box first. This money is the reason she runs. She does not put it in the safe deposit box, she steals it. The rest of the film is about finding her and the money. The script is alright. All scripts can always be improved. I thought that everything that happened was predictable. That is just how I saw it. If I look at the film from a different point of view I can see the suspense in it. You can try to figure out what will happen next because there are a few possibilities. The family and lover of Marion never know what really happens to her. In the end the audience does not know what happens after the truth comes out. It just ends. The film works with shadows well. One of the main characters, Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins), always seems to be in the dark. When you watch the film you wonder why he is in the dark. Marion is often in the light. She commits the crime but she never goes into the dark. This shows how Hitchcock wants you to think about the light and dark and how it relates to the characters. At first I thought the acting could have been done by anyone. In 1998 Psycho was remade. I thought the acting of Vince Vaughn (playing Norman Bates) and Anne Heche (playing Marion Crane) was horrible. They could not even come close to a good comparison of Perkins and Leigh. Perkins and Leigh had amazing chemistry on-screen which is great. Perkins is skillful at being a nice person who appears to have no problems. He also does an outstanding job at switching his personality throughout the film. After the movie is over his creepiness sticks with you. The whole time I was watching Vaughn do Norman Bates I was thinking this guy is weird. He does not bring the same level of acting as Perkins did. Heche also does a bad job. She does not have the same talent as Leigh did in the role of Marion. To me she did not appear to be as confident in the role as Leigh was. I believe that maybe during the shooting of the film Heche was thinking exactly what I was thinking about her playing in Psycho, what in the world am I doing here. Leigh portrays Marion as being nervous and on the edge the whole time. Throughout the film Marion is a nice person even though she has committed a crime. You would never think that a person like Marion would do anything wrong. The famous shower scene is good for its time. It is more of a classy scene than a bloody mess like many of the films today. It shows more after the murder than most films do. In more modern films the scenes are more like die, die, die, and then on to the next victim. This one shows a cover-up and how to possibly get away with murder. Today, Psycho is still loved by many. It is a movie that will always give it's audience a thrilling feeling. When Hitchcock made this movie it paved the way for all of the other thriller movies to come. Every thriller movie that is made will always be compared to Psycho. I do not think that this was the greatest movie ever but I do appreciate it for what it has done to the film industry.
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Summary: The masterpiece of the suspense's master
Review: Notorius may be well his most artistic work but Psycho still remains the dark atmosphere that envolves the Norman Bates environment. His hobby refelects the state of his soul , dead as frozen as the animals of his collection< the motel is awful and mysterious as his mind and his house.
Just remember there are twelve rooms available , but twelve is just the members of a jury.
And I think this is an underground clue given by the master Hichcock.
In the first take the camera flies and sets us in a hotel window with Leigh, she commits adultery, and we are witness : then she steals the money and we are witeness again , so in the second part of the picture we just only establish Bates as the evil murder but we forget the opening sequence. In this sense I've always thought Norman acts as the judge sent by the fate.
The rest belongs to the legend. Norman Bates is an isolated guy and even more, a troubled man . The insights in the plot had a brittish ancestor: Peeping Tom, but Hitchcock never forgot the huge influence of the german expressionism and gives us unforgettable sequences. The handle camera , the support in music given by Bernard Hermann, made of this picture a landmark so hard to reach that still remains as a lone winner in the throne of the supreme jewels suspense american movies in any age.
Perkins in his best achievement.
An eternal cult movie.
Rating: 
Summary: "My hobby is stuffing things...you know, taxidermy."
Review: "Psycho" is perhaps Hitchcock's most notorious movie, mainly due to the infamous "shower scene", and Anthony Perkins in his best-remembered role as "Norman Bates", the motel keeper. After the great opening credits (by repeater Saul Bass) and strings-only score (by repeater Bernard Hermann), we pan across the Phoenix rooftops and zoom into a motel window to see Janet Leigh ("Marion") and John Gavin ("Sam") in the denouement of an afternoon tryst, which was daring in its day for showing a woman in a white bra. He is having money trouble which prevents them from having a normal relationship, and sets up the reason Marion steals $40,000 in cash from her employer in a subsequent scene. As she is driving on the main road after absconding with the money, Marion imagines the conversations her friends and family will have regarding her disappearance. She gets tired and pulls to the side of the road and sleeps through the night, to be awakened by a curious cop. After some questions and answers, she drives off to a used car dealer and trades in her car, under full view of the suspicious policeman. She proceeds on the road, but when it starts raining at night, she decides to pull into the Bates motel. She signs in, using an archaic fountain pen, as "Marie Samuels". She has a little chat and snack with Norman, then has a change of heart about the money and decides to return it to her employer, and takes a shower. With a torn curtain, the shower scene is one of the most talked about in film history. I will not spoil it with details. Meanwhile, after the lady vanishes, a private detective (Martin Balsam) is hired by Marion's sister (played by Vera Miles from "Vertigo") and Sam to locate her. At the Bates motel, the man who was about to know too much walked in a north-by-northwest direction up the thirty nine steps to the Bates' house and meets his doom, but not before informing the sister and her boyfriend he would see them shortly. When he doesn't return, boyfriend and sister have a suspicion, and go to the motel, where they find a tiny slip of paper with some arithmetic on it. This is part of the calculations Marion had done regarding the stolen money, and most of the paper had been flushed down the toilet (the operation of which had never before been shown in film). After the killer is caught, a psychologist (played by Simon Oakland), gives a rather long explanation of the person's problem (and included a word that drove the censors crazy). Apparently Hitchcock was not certain if this scene was necessary. In today's world, it would be omitted, I think, probably because we don't need to know the details, or we already know them. With only a few minor flaws, you might watch it spellbound, and without a shadow of a doubt, this is arguably Hitchcock's best film. The DVD sound and image is good. A one-hour-and-40 minute "behinds the scenes" with clips and cast/crew comments is very good. The usual text-based cast notes and production notes, and a Hitchcock-hosted tour of the set as the trailer round out the reasonably-priced DVD.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Hitchcock Movie
Review: This is not only the best Hitchcock film of them all but it is also the greatest scary movie of them all. This film sparked every horror villain that ever graced the silver screen. Mike Meyers, Scream, Freddy Cruegar, and Jason Voorhees would never have seen the spotlight had it not been for Norman Bates. This film is very suspensful and takes you by surprise when you first watch the film. It breaks every cliche that you would expect in a slasher flick. See it and be terrified. I highly reccomend it.
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