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Bookmark this pagePsycho (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
No introduction needed, surely, for Hitchcock's best film, a stunningly realised (on a relatively low budget) slice of Grand Guignol in which the Bates Motel is the arena for much sly verbal sparring and several gruesome murders. But it's worth pointing out that Hitch was perfectly right to view it as fun; for all its scream of horror at the idea (and consequences) of madness, it's actually a very black comedy, titillating the audience with its barely linear narrative (the heroine disappears after two reels), with its constant shuffling of audience sympathies, and with its ironic dialogue ('Mother's not quite herself today'). Add the fact that we never learn who's buried in Mrs Bates' coffin, and you've got a stunning, if sadistic, two-hour joke. The cod-Freudian explanation offered at the conclusion is just so much nonsense, but the real text concerning schizophrenia lies in the tellingly complex visuals. A masterpiece by any standard.Author: GA
User reviews of this film
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- Magmabulle said...
- Posted on Jun 09 2008 11:29 The horror movie to which all other horror movies are compared. It is suspense and well-made, although maybe not as frightening as it was fifty years ago.
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- KT said...
- Posted on Mar 08 2008 06:57 To Author GA: Psycho was a movie that fit it's time . . . written for a more simple era and for an audience that didn't sit and dissect every scene. It's easy to criticize something when all movies now a days leave nothing to the imagination. Psycho IS a masterpiece and will go on being a masterpiece. It was written for entertainment purposes. If you want to talk about a two hour joke, try the remake of Psycho with Ann Heche and Vincent Vaughn....Now THAT one REALLY sucked rat eggz! And the acting!....ha, ha, ha, ha!
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Cast & crew
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Simon Oakland, John Anderson full cast
Genre(s): Horror
Duration: 109 mins
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