Reviews:
“Everything you have read, seen or heard about this film is probably true. Unfortunately, the “twist” ending has been parodied to death (no pun intended) and it, along with its iconic score, is part of the American pop culture landscape. However, if you have never seen Psycho, then you owe yourself a good scare. Behind Jaws and The Exorcist, Psycho is easily one of the best horror, thrillers or horror/thrillers of all time.” The Essential Films
“The shower scene. The haunting score. Perkins’ unforgettable performance. Psycho may not be Hitchcock’s greatest achievement, but it’s arguably his most iconic and certainly his most influential work.” 5/5 The Movie Waffler
” …by pushing an image of America as a trap-laden labyrinth populated by creepy cops and nice-as-pie psychopaths; and by implying that women (brace yourself now) actually use the toilet sometimes, Hitch helped pave the way for all the cultural earthquakes and moral rebalancing acts that the coming decade had to offer. And he did it all with a wink and a smile. Now that’s show business.” Time Out
“Hitchcock’s low-budget, black-and-white shocker looks like a bad dream of crystalline clarity and detail, ushered in with crazed operatic intensity by Bernard Herrmann’s superb score. There are moments in which it appears to decelerate to a floating slo-mo: Arbogast (Martin Balsam) climbing the stairs; Marion’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) approaching Norman’s house, her eyes stark and terrified. And then Hitchcock will stamp hard on the accelerator pedal, most famously for the shower scene in which Marion (Janet Leigh) will meet her destiny.” The Guardian film blog
The House by the Railroad by American painter Edward Hopper was the inspiration for the look of the Bates house
Offline reading:
Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho by Stephen Rebello, Marion Boyars, 2012
The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder by David Thomson, Basic Books, 2010
Timeline:
To read about Robert Bloch’s Psycho novel go to page 3
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