Psycho - Collector's Edition

Rating:
Summary: The Original Slasher Film!!
Review: This is the movie all horror film makers strive to be like. I found this to be Alfred Hitchcock's most visually challenging film with its significant imagery. The most effective part of this movie was that it was filmed in black & white. Color would have made this movie too brutal and unwatchable back in 1960. His film editing techniques of the shower scene were innovative at the time and are now standard for today's movies. I've watched this movie at least 20 times now and I keep learning more and more about his direction. If you're a film director wannabe, watch and learn from the master!!

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best...
Review: I saw this when it first came out, with my brother, and we were 12 and 15, respectively...of course, it shocked adults at the time (as well as today) but it REALLY had an impact on us! Back in 1960, there simply was nothing around to compare, as this movie opened new ground in horror, and even in black and white, it was chilling, perhaps even more so...Janet Leigh was superb, and notice her expression when she is driving away with the money from the man at the bank, who flirted with her, and her thoughts as to how he would react when he discovered the theft. There was another scene, not the shower one, which scared me to death, and the buildup to it was agonizing. In fact, every time we had to go into the Bates house, I was a wreck. When one man complained to Hitchcock that his wife, after seeing the movie, refused to take showers, the Master replied: "Have her dry cleaned..." The Highway Patrol cop who follows her, with great suspicion, is fabulous, his sunglasses obscuring his eyes, and his thoughts, and the car salesman, who is also suspicious and somewhat put off by her desperation...Norman Bates, with his collection of taxidermy, is great, and Perkin's performance here is all the more remarkable considering his previous filmwork was in "Friendly Persuasion", playing the good Quaker son...and Martin Balsam, as the detective helping Vera Miles find her sister, was excellent, and one of my favorite lines of his, to Bates: "It doesn't gel, it isn't aspic..." flatly doubting his contention that he never met or knew the lady in question. I am definitely getting the DVD collector's edition, and plan to watch it during our next thunderstorm, as if it needed more atmosphere! Enjoy...

Rating:
Summary: On my top 5, brilliant, scary and suspensful
Review: As the tension builds up to a spine tingling climax, Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Marnie, Saboteur, Rear Window) is possibly the greatest scary movie ever and definately one of my top 5 favorite movies ever. Norman bates runs his own motel, but history reveals more, his mother died and she haunts him and the hotel, his psychological problem makes him want to kill women who come to the hotel with a resemblence to his mom. The Bates house is across the road and the mother's corpse is upstairs...and other horrifying surprises, mystery, suspense and drama unfold in this compelling, haunting film that pushed boundaries and broke a wall in horror history!

Rating:
Summary: A HORROR MASTERPIECE!!
Review: The one and only PSYCHO! First of all, the shower scene isn't the scariest scene of the movie, and would future reviewers quit putting spoilers in their reviews. This is an incredible film, full of jolts, great suspense, and amazing acting. You just have to see this. Watch it alone in the dark!

Rating:
Summary: This DVD includes never-seen-before "Censored Shot".
Review: The entire one hour and forty-seven minutes of the film is all here. Psycho (1960) is still the most eerie and terrifying thriller ever made of its kind. The DVD version is crystal-clear. In the "Bonus Features" is a one hour and thirty-seven minute documentary that includes all the secrets of making the film plus an entertaining and delightful interview with Janet Leigh. There is also a "Censored Shot" of Janet Leigh that never made it into the film that you can see here on DVD. The six-minute trailer of "Psycho" with Alfred Hitchcock giving you a tour of the outside sets and inside sets is on the DVD too.

Rating:
Summary: Make A Stop At The Bates Motel
Review: Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho is best known for its unforgettable score and infamous shower scene which at the time of its release the most graphic murder scene ever filmed. But Psycho is so much than just a slasher film. It is an intensely compelling psychological thriller that draws you in with its riveting plot and first rate acting. Anthony Perkins is requisitely creepy as motel owner Norman Bates, but he adds so much more to the character. What could have been just a one-dimensional role, Mr. Perkins approaches it with depth and makes you wonder how Norman became the man he was. Janet Leigh is striking as Marion Crane who decides to steal $40,000.00 and ends up meeting her doom at the Bates Motel. Vera Miles, John Gavin and the great Martin Balsam all provide tremendous support. Psycho set the standard by which all subsequent horror films are to be judged.

Rating:
Summary: Very Scary!
Review: This movie is great! See it. The best horror movie EVER!

Rating:
Summary: STILL GIVES VIEWERS THE CREEPS!
Review: Although this landmark Hitchcock film is over 4O years old, it still manages to instill the shudders! Many factors contribute to this fact. The performances are first-rate, especially that of Anthony Perkins: he was forever identified with this role (is it any wonder?) and Perkins was practically type-cast as movie audiences relished savouring his playing of demented Norman Bates. The black and white photography is another factor towards the film's perennial success. If this had been filmed in colour, it wouldn't have nearly the intended impact. Thirdly, there is the classic, terrificly creepy musical score by Bernard Herrmann which is, in a word, unforgettable. Janet Leigh is natural and effective in her playing of Marion Crane: when she takes off with that $4O,OOO, the audience goes right along for the ride! Even Hitchcock's daughter, Pat, is cleverly cast as the receptionist at the Phoenix bank, and she somehow lingers in the memory - definitely a Hitchcockian touch: we remember "Teddy" and "aspirin". Handsome John Gavin is a bit wooden as Sam, but then so is Vera Miles as Lila (is that a wig she's wearing?): they seem destined to be together after the fade-out. Even as a kid, I thought the bedroom of Mrs. Bates was grotesque: hearts, artificial flowers, cupids and all - and that imprint on the bed....ugh!! The scenes in the Bate's motel office are brilliantly acted in every respect: with Leigh, Gavin and Balsam respectively. As Arbogast, Martin Balsam is memorably honest in his playing and his death scene is particularly jolting. Concerning Lila, Sam & Marion's whereabouts, I love the scene where Arbogast says to Lila "...but I don't believe you" - Lila replies thusly: "I don't care whether YOU believe me or NOT!!" When Mrs. Bates appears to be very much alive according to Lila, John McIntire is memorable as the gruff but essentially tender-hearted sheriff. Eerily, he questions just who is buried in her plot in the local cemetery? - which gives the film an obviously intentional "false twist" Lurene Tuttle, that great veteran character actress plays the sheriff's wife who insists that Mrs. Bate's was buried in a dress of "periwinkle blue" (!). Most every horror fan knows that Leigh (and thousands of women) refrained form taking showers after seeing this film upon its initial release in 196O. Janet Leigh's "blood" was actually Hershey's chocolate syrup going "down the drain"! The Joseph Stefano script is - if not brilliant - interesting: it was adapted from the novel by Robert Bloch. Said to be inspired from one Edward Gein, an eccentric Wisconsin bachelor who, after his domineering mother died, went "psycho" in his secluded isolation. Creepy.

Rating:
Summary: "BLOOD....BLOOD!"....
Review: The definitive Hitchcock film along with "The Birds", "Psycho" may not be as scary as it once was---but it's still an undisputed masterpiece of suspense and shock. Janet Leigh swipes $40,000 from her boss and heads out of town to escape her problems---the chief of which is her clandestine affair with her lover(John Gavin). After a nerve wracking journey, she finally pulls into the Bates motel for the night during a rainstorm. There she encounters Norman Bates, the nervous and twitchy proprieter, played by Anthony Perkins in the role that haunted him the rest of his life. Marion (Leigh) regrets her theft and plans to make things right the next day. But Norman is sexually attracted to her and spies on her through a convenient peep hole as she prepares for a shower. Then "Mother" intervenes and stabs Marion to death in the shower in what is probably the most famous scene in American film history. Gavin and Marions' sister Lila (Vera Miles) begin investigating Marion's disappearance by posing as guests at the motel. "Mother" is an enigma to everyone and they soon learn she died years ago under odd circumstances. Norman is suspiciously uncooperative and his bizarre private world begins to unravel. A detective snooping around on the couples' behalf meets a nasty death from "Mother" as well. The murder set pieces are designed to shock as is Lilas' gruesome discovery in the fruit cellar of the Bates' creepy old house. Bernard Herrmanns' famous shrieking score is still chilling. Acting is good (though Gavin is rather bland) but it's Perkins' show here and he is memorably effective as a truly disturbed psychotic. I don't know anyone who hasn't seen this but for anyone who hasn't it's a classic and should be seen at least once. The whole film is one big conversation piece from start to finish and a must for collectors.

Rating:
Summary: FAR FROM BEING THE SCARIEST MOVIE!
Review: This is definately not the scariest movie ever made! I just wanted to state that. This is scary, don't get me wrong, but to call it the scariest movie ever made is a bit of an exageration. It is Hitchcock's scariest movie, but not the scariest movie ever made. Buy or rent, I'm sure you'll be pleased.