"Psycho" (1960)

Rank on the AFI List: #14

WHAT I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT THE MOVIE:
I knew quite a bit: Norman Bates, psycho "mother", famous shower scene...

LET ME EXPLAIN...
Even though I pretty much knew the story and "twists" in this movie well before I ever watched it, I really enjoyed it. This is a seriously creepy movie with virtually non-stop suspense. My wife and I loved it, especially since we watched it right before Halloween.

The shower scene, while being one of the most famous and well known scenes in movie history, still felt new and cringe-worthy when it came up. And in the production notes on the DVD, the lead actress Janet Leigh points out that the scene doesn't actually show any of the violence, leaving the horror of what's happening completely up to the audience's own imagination (horror movies nowadays show as much gore and violence as they can, taking away all the imagination. I'll take "Psycho" over those movies any day).

What makes this a "Top 100" Movie?

It's a classic horror flick, and unlike most horror films, it is extremely well done.  Great cinematography, great acting (Janet Leigh was nominated for an Oscar, and Anthony Perkins became an international star after playing Norman Bates), and like I said earlier, great suspense.  This is probably considered the greatest horror movie of all time, and the AFI List needs to have that genre represented.

Complaints:
These are very minor, but when the psychiatrist is basically explaining the entire plot at the end, it seemed a little forced.  It felt like Hitchcock thought "we need to answer all the audience's questions at the end, so let's have an omniscient psychiatrist come in and explain everything in one scene."  I thought that was a bit cheap.  Another complaint was the staircase scene with the detective.  It's hard to explain unless you've seen the film, but all I have to say is it made an otherwise scary and gruesome scene somewhat silly.

LET ME SUM UP...
I've seen my share of horror movies, and "Psycho" is by far one of the best.  Unlike most horror flicks, it didn't rely on being gruesome, or coming up with the most creative way for characters to die.  It simply did a terrific job at building and carrying suspense, and it was very creepy without being gory or gratuitous.  There were only a couple scenes that distracted me from the story, but they were very minor.

MY RATING: 9/10

TOTAL # OF FILMS WATCHED: 66