Psycho is, of course, a horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, and Simon Oakland.
Marion Crane (Leigh) and her boyfriend Sam Loomis (Gavin) want very much to get married and stop seeing each other in cheap motels, but Sam is in a great deal of debt and is paying alimony to his ex-wife. Marion returns to work after their little tryst, only to discover that her boss (Frank Albertson) is selling a property to a flashy rich dude (Vaughn Taylor), and said rich dude is paying in cash. Marion is instructed to take the cash to the bank, but she steals it and flees the city, planning to go to Sam in California.
Along the way, she gets caught in a storm and pulls off to the out-of-the-way Bates Motel. The proprietor, Norman (Perkins), seems nice enough, if a bit odd. But then we find that he peeps on her through a hole in the wall, and he seems to be dealing with his elderly but overbearing mother.
And then, of course, Marion takes a shower, and an unknown figure enters and stabs her to death. Norman finds her body, cleans up the scene, and sinks her car (and her possessions, including the money, which he never finds) in the swamp.
The rest of the movie follows Marion's sister Lila (Miles), Sam, and a private investigator name Arbogast (Balsam) as they search for Marion and try to piece together what happened to her. Of course, we all know the twist ending - Norman's mother is long dead, and her personality overwhelms his sometimes, at which point he dresses up like her and, when "she" feels it appropriate, kills people.
It's difficult to overstate how much influence Psycho has had on the horror genre, and on cinema in general. The score, with its terrifying violins, is iconic, as is Anthony Perkins' amazing performance as Norman Bates (and it got him hella typecast). Likewise, the twist of killing off the apparent protagonist midway through the movie was shocking to contemporary audiences - in fact, Psycho is partially responsible for movies having set showtimes rather than running on a loop.
The movie mostly holds up to modern scrutiny, although the whole "mentally ill people are deranged killers" thing is kind of problematic in its own right. Psycho is very much a movie that requires you to take the historical context into account in order to get the most of out of it. With that said, the performances are solid, and the direction is top notch, absolutely one of Hitchcock's best.
My Grade: A
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Rear Window
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