One of Alfred
Hitchcock’s great cinematic masterpieces (and I would even argue his best) is 1960’s Psycho. I had previously
placed it on my ’10 Movies to Watch in October’ list (which you can check out
here: http://onlyinthemoviesblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/10-movies-to-watch-in-october.html)
but I still felt like I should have given it a little more of a in-depth review.
This is not only a great psychological horror
film but a great film overall, with iconic moments, a great score, solid acting
(particularly Anthony Perkins) and wall-to-wall suspense. It’s spawned a couple
of sequels, a remake, and TV show. Much like Hitchcock urging theater owners
not to let people to enter the theater late, because it would ruin the
experience, I’ll give the setup and end it there just in case anyone reading
this has not seen the movie.
The Film starts out
in Phoenix, Arizona. During a hotel rendezvous while on her lunch hour, a secretary
at a real estate office named Marion Crane (played by Janet Leigh) discusses
with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (played by John Gavin), why they can’t afford to
get married because Sam is in pretty substantial debt. When Marion returns from
lunch, a client comes by the office and drops off a $40,000 cash deposit for a
property. Her boss asks her to deposit the money in the bank, and she asks him if
she can take the rest of the afternoon off afterwards. But, she doesn’t go to
the bank and instead decides to steal the money to give to Sam. So, Marion
heads out of town and toward California where Sam lives. That evening, she
pulls over on the side of the road and falls asleep, only to be awakened in the
morning by a state trooper. He asks her a couple of questions and is suspicious
about her nervous behavior but lets her to drive on anyway. Shaken by the run-in
with the officer, Marion stops at a dealership and trades in her car for
another and then continues on her way.
Later during her
travels, it starts raining pretty heavily so she decides to stop for the night
at the Bates Motel where she meets Norman Bates and the whole film take a
sudden and violent turn.
Like I stated earlier,
I think this is one of the all-time great films and it’s always especially good
to watch around Halloween. So, if you’re one of the few who hasn’t seen it -or- if you just haven't watched it in a while, go
check it out. You’ll be glad you did.
I give this film a 5
out of 5.
Have a suggestion for
a review?
Leave it in the
comments below.
...and for some more good reads check out this Book, Video game, and Comicbook blog:
Boredenthusiast.blogspot.com
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