Psycho (1960) Review

Written by: chris_gottschalk2   

This is my reveiw of the 1960 Psycho. This movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is one of the most famous films in history. It contains the famous "Shower Scene" as well as many other lesser known scenes that are just as good. This movie has a lot of thrills to offer and is everything but outdated.

Alfred Hitchcock has directed many movies, most of which are thrillers. I wouldn't consider him to be a true horror director. He his a definate thriller director, which is a good thing, but I would only consider a few of his movies to be true horror movies. This is one example of a pure, true horror picture. The directing, the camera shots, the musical score... everything about this movie is good in this department. This movie was originaly adapted from a novel but the story was changed quite a bit.

Some of the actors in this movie include: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles. The acting in this movie and the way the actors work together is great. Anthony Perkins gives us a great show. He can take any normal scene and turn it into a creepfest with his facial expressions and strong dialog. He fits the role of Norman Bates perfectly. Janet Leigh and Vera Miles also work well as sisters, even though they have little (if any) screen-time together. They look a lot alike and act a lot alike, just like sisters would.

The musical score, as I said above, is great. It has a creepy feel to it from the very first note. I couldn't really tell you why this music is so creepy. It fits the movie perfectly.

It was the 60s, so every small special effect was used. Belive it or not, the blood throughout the whole movie was actually chocolate syrup. Everything that Hitchcock used fit the movie perfectly. He used just the right amount of gore, which is something that a lot of directors of today would like to be able to do.

A lot of people say that the shot for shot remake is better simply because it is in color. This isn't true. The old, Hitchcock, black and white movie is so much better than the remake. Black and white can actually make a movie more mysterious and different when it is in black and white. Many directors use to choose to shoot movies in black and white for that very reason. (Night of the Living Dead was shot in black and white, even though it was 1968 and color was available)

I couldn't really tell you much more about this movie. I would recomend this movie to just about anyone who likes to think when watching horror movies. This movie keeps you guessing till the end about what is going on and who the killer is. I envy the people who actually seen this movie in the theatures in 1960. In the modern age it is impossible to watch this movie and see scenes that you have seen on TV or on the internet.

For my overall rating, I give Psycho a 10 out of 10 rating.