Rating: Summary: THE Horror Film of ALL Horror Films Review: One of Hitchcock's finest works...Great picture and great extras. Another must.
Rating: Summary: The original horror movie... Review: Generally, I really don't like horror/slasher movies. Especially now, these movies are usually guaranteed to be bloody, stupid, not scary, and in the worst possible taste. Psycho, however, is the one exception, and it comes as no surprise that it is the original horror movie (...). I really enjoyed watching Psycho, and boy, was it scary! The reason Psycho is so superior to all other horror films made since, perhaps with a few exceptions, is that all the suspense and terror is created without any truly bloody scenes. Horror films nowadays are guilty of terrible overkill (ironic choice of word) in terms of bloodshed - people are killed left and right, and all the blood and gore is shown. Hitchcock has far too much taste to do anything of the sort: instead, he uses his amazing abilities as a direction to create almost unbearable tension and suspense without actually showing much blood. Psycho is the ultimate illustration of how effective scary movies rely on the atmosphere that is created using music, lighting, etc, etc. - blood is simply not necessary and actually detracts from the suspense factor! Anyhow, all in all, this is a classic film, and it is one of Hitchcock's masterpieces. If you are in the mood for a REALLY scary movie, not a stupid slasher film, but a truly frightening and chilling film (that has some interesting psychological stuff thrown in for good measure as well), then get this film, and enjoy being scared!
Rating: Summary: Lock the Bathroom Door! Review: For those who have been living on another planet, Psycho is the granddaddy of all slasher/psychological thrillers, and still the best. Janet Leigh plays Marion, a small-time thief who checks into the wrong motel for the night. It is run by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), an odd young man who really loves his mother. It seems Mother doesn't like Marion, and Janet's character is dispatched in the first reel. More mayhem follows, and Perkins' bravura performance as the insane psycho is absolutely terrific. Much of the film takes place in the world's scariest house, with its dark, empty rooms, long starcase, and creepy cellar. The movie is spine-tingling and shocking. Those who saw it in the theatres on its first run were overwhelmed by the violence, and many still can't take a shower without locking the bathroom door, thanks to the infamous "shower scene." The soundtrack was completely original at the time, and was the prototype of terrifying mood music. If you want thrills, Psycho is the movie for you. The acting and script are outstanding. The movie is in black and white, but I think that makes it even better!
Rating: Summary: i don't get why people hate this film so much . . . Review: Lighten up, people, and have some thriller fun, for gawsh sakes ... People come to this film expecting genius and excellence. I'm sorry, but in the commercial movie world, and with Alfred Hitchcock, you can expect only to be entertained. If you want excellence, you have to go to film makers like Tarkovsky, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Bergman, Antonioni, Ozu, Vigo, Egoyan, Kurosawa, or Ophuls...For all its flaws, PSYCHO at least passes muster as a half-way decent thriller Meanwhile, Hitchcock, Perkins, Janet Leigh, PSYCHO, and shower-phobia FOREVER!
Rating: Summary: Psycho's Given Great Treatment Review: The picture and sound quality of Psycho on DVD are great. Bernard Herrmann's score is especially chilling. The strings all are sharp enough to send shivers racing down your spine toward the Bates Motel. The 90-minute documentary on the DVD is great, as are the other extras (which include the 6 minute trailer, promotional footage, production stills, and other things of the like). Unfortunately, the extra footage gets very redundant very quickly, with the promotional (and mislabeled "newsreel") footage basically restating what was said in the documentary. Not to mention, the promotional footage is redundant enough of itself. The static menus are a bit dissapointing also, but besides, Psycho is a great buy! One of my favorite DVDs.
Rating: Summary: FLAWED CLASSIC DESERVES OVERHAUL Review: First off, this film is dated (remake or otherwise.) Motel management is no longer done this way. Besides, encouraging guests to leave early by accosting them in the shower is bad, bad business policy. And stabbing them to death just makes it harder for undesired guests to leave early on their own power. Really, if Bates is in such a hurry to get people to pay up and leave quick, he should put some of those hideous stuffed birds into the motel rooms. Nobody would spend more than a short day in a room with one of those things in it. Having slain, eviscerated, and dessicated one's mother, it is best to motorize the rocking chair, and put mother in chair near a window. Set the chair and indoor house/bedroom light on in such a way as to obliquely indicate her "presence." Most people will be then disinclined to heed the old bitty: they'll be thinking, "awh. leave her alone." Now, having slain a motel customer, there is little point in packing her off in her car, and making it disappear in the mud. Very few motels have cellars, but no matter. If you are clever with the floorboards, and neat with the dirt, eventually you can, if you must, dispose of all kinds of "immoveable" customer-guests. The car can be repainted in the garage, and sold several states away, perhaps to someone who never actually drives it, or is likely (pre-arranged) to have an accident with it not long after. The car ends up in the dump. Perhaps its parts are sold off in various directions, hopefully to people who are too happy interacting about how lucky they were to get the parts to notice or care about how they got them, their actual origins, etc. I.E., the traceable parts become gradually untraceable as they soon disappear into various similar vehicles around the country. Perhaps even around the world. Perhaps the car or cars even get compacted. If not, still no one pays attention to it/them anymore, anyway, except junk-yard dogs, rats, and idle boys. Similar with luggage and other personal effects. Thorough burning and mortar-and-pestle style destruction and dispersal solves many a tracing problem. And a fool like Bates is truly to be despised. Any motel manager worth his salt has already mastered a bazillion styles of handwriting in their spare time. Such a manager easily keeps 3 or 4 (or more) different sets of books to conceal the recent presence of since-eliminated short-term(!) motel tenants. These should be such as to be suitable for decieving any number of 'enquirers.' And one can conceal these the way one conceals any other flat, rectangular objects. One can even have interchangeable sheets, stitch them in oneself, etc. The possibilities in bookkeeping deceptions are endless. Other errors, uncorrected in the new edition/version, will occur to the perceptive motel manager. See Janet Leigh (or Ann Heche) in something besides her wet birthday suit.
Rating: Summary: mother made me write this! Review: ...This is one of his best. Hitchcock was a spectator rather than a participant in the sexual attractions and yearnings throughout his films. Right from the beggining of Psycho, the camera pans to the window of a hotel room where two people are in the afterglow of a "Long Lunch". The film draws you in and never lets up. David Lynch parodied lots of details from Psycho and other Hitchcock films in his recent "Mulholland Drive", from the hat the "real director" wears, as Hitchcock does in Psycho, to the buzz of the light when he appears. The gray suit that "Betty" wears to her audition was taken from Vertigo. But it was Psycho that set the standard. Anthony Perkins endearing performance as "Norman" shows a young man with frustration and vunerability. You really believe he could never harm a fly. Janet Leigh and John Gavin were incredibly classy. Vera Miles should have taken home an Oscar. Hitchcock was nominated, but sadly did not win. He should have. Don't miss this movie.
Rating: Summary: The Beginning Of The Modern Horror Film Era Review: Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece PSYCHO remains a groundbreaking horror movie to this very day despite the thousands of imitators it has spawned in the last four decades. It was with this film that the horror genre, thought to consist of inhuman monsters and dark, stormy castles, entered the modern age and forced filmmakers to look at humanity's darker side with a contemporary look. By now, of course, everyone knows the story: A woman (Janet Leigh) ends up stealing $40,000 from her boss, drives from Phoenix to Central California to meet with her lover (John Gavin) but never makes it thanks to the "interference" of a motel clerk (Antohny Perkins) and his "mother." Even to this day, however, one can ingeniously look at Hitchcock's film and admire not only the shocks, including the still-potent shower murder, but also the director's deliciously morbid style of black comedy. Perkins made his character Norman Bates into a household work for Madness, and Bernard Herrmann provided us with his celebrated shrieking score, done entirely with strings. The film also marked a point at which the horror film would really tackle subjects that were taboo before--psychology, madness, murder (more explicitly than before) and even necrophilia. This is because the film, scripted by Joseph Stefano from Robert Bloch's novel of the same name, has its roots in the case of the ghoulish Wisconsin mass murderer Ed Geinn, which would also provide inspiration for the 1974 cult classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. These elements have helped make PSYCHO a legendary film in ways that the vast number of its imitators could never be. It's intelligent, scary, and unsettling even after endless imitations and such. Even the seemingly unnecessary intrusion of the psychiatrist (Simon Oakland) at the end is far less bothersome than it seems. He gives us a good idea of what sort of a person Norman is: "He was never all Norman. But he was often ONLY MOTHER." For horror and thriller fans, PSYCHO is an absolutely essential addition to your collection if you don't already have it. Pick up this one-of-a-kind masterpiece now!
Rating: Summary: We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes Review: Called the grandaddy of all horror movies, Psycho is not only a great thriller but a great movie as well. From the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock(Vertigo, The Birds)comes a tale of a shy young hotel owner named Norman Bates(Anthony Perkins) and a theif on the run named Marion Crane. Norman is dominated by his mother and does everything she tells him to do. If that means committing murder, well that's what he'll do. Everyone knows of the infamous shower scene. Psycho spawned a few sequels but will never match the power of the original. I'm a big fan of horror movies, and though I wouldn't say psycho is a "horror" movie, I will say most horror movies Such as Halloween were inspired by this classic of classics.
Rating: Summary: excellent~ Review: This movie was a great film! I just loved it. The black and white version is great. Im reading the book, too. Anyways, in this film, there is this girl Marion Crane (in the book Mary) that steals about 40,000 dollars and goes to stay at the Bates motel where no one goes that much since the new road was built. This guy, Norman Bates, is obsessed with his mother which lives on the house on the hill. (the big one). They are both maniacs, and im not giving away any endings. I've seen most horror films and this one was one of the bests!
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