Movie #45: Psycho. Or really....no, Psycho is the most fitting title.

Title: Psycho

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Year: 1960

Number on the AFI List: 14

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I'm not going to be the first one to say this, or the last: Psycho is BRILLIANT. ANTHONY PERKINS.  My gosh! You couldn't find someone more perfect, subtle, neurotic, nervous, paranoid, manipulative, and yet...somehow sympathetic. You wouldn't think he was a killer until you find out he is (spoilers. Not sorry about it. You should know he's the killer by now.). How he wasn't even nominated for an Academy Award is beyond me. In fact, how The Apartment won best picture and Psycho wasn't even nominated for best picture is outlandish. Hitchcock's brilliant direction and style is on full display throughout this movie, how he can create intensity with use of darkness and light, silence and song, swooping camera shots, and subtle yet graphic scenes of murder. The infamous shower scene is brilliantly shot. While today, the cop out would be to show full on nudity and just get the shooting of the scene over with, Hitchcock uses various angles and shots that are so jarring you don't know where he's going next, just like Norman Bates with his blade. Apparently, it took seven full days to shoot that one scene. If anything, this goes to show that great movie making is about quality more than quantity, taking your time to do something well and thought out, rather than just doing a few shots to get a scene over with. 

My favorite moments were the conversations people had with Bates. In fact, my favorite scene of the movie is when Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is eating her sandwich in Bates' office. The tension of both of them not wanting to get caught in their respective schemes is palpable-Crane with her money, Bates with his jealous attraction of her. 

Of course, everyone else in this movie is fantastic, too. Detective Arborgast (Martin Balsam) knows how to pressure and question Bates almost to the point of revealing his sins in a clever scene of cat and mouse (GREAT writing). Sam Loomis (John Galvin) and Lila Crane (Vera Miles) are excellent at finding out just what they need from the police and Bates himself, almost fooling Bates into believing they are just normal weary travelers.

Overall, this movie is fantastic and deserves to be watched over and over again. Modern horror filmmakers could learn a lot from Hitchcock's subtlety and style.

Favorite moment: I already mentioned it, but the dinner scene between Marion and Norman.

Will I Watch it Again: Yes. And buy it.