Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5748 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-17
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Formats: Black & White, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
For all the slasher pictures that have ripped off Psycho (and particularly its classic set piece, the "shower scene"), nothing has ever matched the impact of the real thing. More than just a first-rate shocker full of thrills and suspense, Psycho is also an engrossing character study in which director Alfred Hitchcock skillfully seduces you into identifying with the main characters--then pulls the rug (or the bathmat) out from under you. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates, the mama's boy proprietor of the Bates Motel; and so is Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who makes an impulsive decision and becomes a fugitive from the law, hiding out at Norman's roadside inn for one fateful night. Psycho gets the masterpiece treatment it deserves on DVD. --Jim Emerson

Synopsis
Credited with inventing the genre of the modern horror film, Psycho has had its share of sequels and imitators, none of which diminishes the achievement of this shocking and complex horror thriller. Alfred Hitchcock's choreography of elements in Psycho is considered so perfect it inspired a shot-by-shot remake by Gus Van Zant in 1998. However, Hitchcock's black-and-white original, featuring Anthony Perkins's haunting characterisation of lonely motel keeper Norman Bates, has never been equalled. Bates presides over an out-of-the-way motel under the domineering spectre of his mother. The young, well-intentioned Bates is introduced to the audience when Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a blonde on the run with stolen money, checks in for the night. But Momma doesn't like loose women, so the stage is set for this classic tale of horror and one of the most famous scenes in film history. Psycho was initially received by audiences with shock and amazement and it still terrifies today. Though it is now considered prototypical Hitchcock, its setting, pace, and emphasis on terror was a major departure for the director at the time, coming after the more classically grand North by Northwest.

Customer Reviews

A Legendary Masterpiece!
Without doubt, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is one of the greatest films of all time, a compulsive horror that is nothing short of being a masterpiece.
If you haven't seen this black and white before, shame on you, but do be sure to buy this DVD because "Psycho" is one of those films that you must see before you die.
An amazing horror film!

MASTERPIECE
"Television has brought murder back into the home - where it belongs." - Alfred Hitchcock

I am often asked what my favorite film of all time is. My reply is always the same: I do not have a favorite from all the genres. But from the thousands of films I have seen, I have not seen a film more horrifying nor terrifying as Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," the only movie that has ever truly scared me in my entire life. And so I can honestly say that "Psycho" is the scariest film I have ever seen, and is quite probably my favorite horror film of all time.

This is the movie that redefined the genre, and literally gave birth to psychological thrillers. By today's standards, "Psycho" may seem - at the most - tame. Audiences may not be scared by the plot anymore - a plot that was, at the time, unlike anything other, but nowadays quite normal. Gus Van Sant remade Hitchcock's classic in 1998 with both critics and audiences blowing it off. Modern audiences of today are used to slashers such as "Halloween," "Friday the 13th," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," etc., and so Van Sant's "Psycho" did nothing but disappoint them. But I guarantee that if you place modern audiences in front of Hitchcock's "Psycho," they will come out of the film terrified to death (like I was when I first saw it).

Why is this? It is simply because modern audiences don't expect such creepiness and evilness to be in a 1960 film. Most modern audiences think that "Star Wars" (1977) was the start of motion picture history, that anything beforehand is stupid, cheery and not worth their time. They will go into Hitchcock's "Psycho" and expect a happy little picture, which is why they will come out pale with fear.

It all comes down to the fact that in 1960, mainstream films did not have such subject matters as split personality disorder (seen in this year's "Identity"), figures with homicidal tendencies (like John Doe in "Se7en"), or characters who are literally insane (like Hannibal Lector-type-criminals). "Psycho" set the course for these films. It blew audiences out of the water. They had never seen anything like it before. It is probably the only film that has ever really, truly scared me to death. I didn't want to take showers for weeks.

Hitchcock once said, "Cartoonists have the best casting system. If they don't like an actor, they just tear him up." I'm glad Hitchcock didn't try to tear up Anthony Perkins, who plays Norman Bates in "Psycho," as a shy, awkward fellow living off of a re-routed highway. He is perfectly cast and soundly directed by Hitchcock, coming off as a somewhat strange, implacable fellow. We aren't quite sure what to make of him.

Phoenix banker Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is a poor creature living off of practically nothing. She wants to get married to Sam Loomis (John Gavin), but the costs of a wedding outweigh both their incomes. And so one night when her employer entrusts Marion with 40,000 dollars, she flees with the money in the back of her car to go find Sam. However, tired from a long drive, she stops at the Bates Motel for the night. She never leaves the motel, because Norman Bates' reclusive mother becomes jealous of Marion and kills her. Or does she?

Hitchcock masterfully weaves the suspense and horror in "Psycho," so much so that we simply do not know what to think until everything unravels towards the end. The infamous shower scene remains one of the most impressive and wonderful segments in all motion picture history, ranking up there with the unveiling of Harry Lime in "The Third Man," the revelation by Darth Vader in "Star Wars," and one of my personal favorites, the part in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" when Neal Page and Del Griffith wake up in bed entangled with each other. ("Those aren't pillows!")

I think that the anticipation of fear, or the insinuation of something sinister lurking behind a shadowed doorway, is much scarier than blood and guts. Freddy Krueger does not scare some people. Modern horror films tell us what we are supposed to fear, whereas films such as "Psycho" leave the images up to us. Not every person may leave a Jason Voorhees movie scared. Everyone will leave "Psycho" scared. Because as our mind tries to place a face on the fear, our mind incorporates our very fears into the image.

Alfred Hitchcock is undoutedly one of the greatest and most influential film directors in the history of motion pictures. He can create suspense like no other and he can make even the simplest story the most nail-biting, terrifying picture of all time. I recently purchased a DVD with four of Hitchcock's early British films from the thirties, including "The 39 Steps" and "The Lady Vanishes." Hitchcock's sense of solid suspense can be felt even in those early films. He is, quite simply, the master of suspense. Is it no wonder he has gained the exact reputation as mentioned?

Some films land on greatness and don't always deserve their reputation quite so much as everyone seems to think so. "Psycho" is not such a film. Here is a movie that bent and broke every set rule of film making for the time, and changed the course of horror films for the better. The nineties have shown a return to the classic horror/mystery/thriller mix of Hitchcock and Agatha Christie. Here is the granddaddy of them all. Here is the best horror film ever made.

5/5 stars.

we're all caught in our private traps...
"We're all caught in our private traps, we scratch and claw at the air, at each other, but for all of it, we never budge an inch".

Yes, "Psycho" is missing the vibrancy of "North by Northwest", vividity of "Vertigo", ambiguity of "The Birds", and claustrophobia of "Rear Window", but it is a unique movie in its very own league. With Hitchcock's sharp eye with little details, genius camera angles, and keen sense of generating suspense and tension, "Psycho" is multi-layered and richly-textured film, Master's last great picture.

The film starts out very slowly. During the first hour, Hitchcock focuses on a single specific event and takes the viewer somewhat familiar point mostly seen in classic film noirs: a confused woman, being stuck in an impasse with a lover bogged down in financial woes, steals money off her employer. Things becomes to go awry en route California (where her lover lives), while she encounters some "MacGuffins" such as a mysterious patrolman and suspicious used-car salesman, both are the harbingers of incipient tension and terror. Her edgy trip ends in a sleazy motel off the main highway in a rainy night. Hitchcock startles the viewer while central female antagonist dies half-way through the film, and takes us another sinister place where the real secret is revealed. From this point, Anthony Perkins lead the show as twitchy motel keeper with peculiar idiosyncrasies. This is the role of his life, as everybody is waiting horrified whenever this schizoid time bomb will go off.

From the very beginning, Hitchcock imbues the film with a heavy atmosphere of impending doom. Blood-chilling strings of composer Bernard Herrmann adds greatly to the overall moodiness. Today's horror/thrillers depend too much on graphic violence, where blood, gore, decapitations, and dismembered bodies galore. Not overly violent and with almost no blood and gore, the unshakable effectiveness "Psycho" mutters up comes from what is implied, but not shown. He always used to make the audience use their imagination. This is the greatness of Hitchcock.

Now for the downside, I found the second half of the film somewhat forced. Private eye Arbogast's insatiable obsession with Norman and his ill mother is totally unconvincing. Lila's (Marion's sister) intuition about something bad had happened in the motel is groundless. Sam and Lila's visit to the motel and their sureness about Marion's stay in room number 1 is totally implausible. Also, the secret of the film is predictable half-way through, as soon as all the pieces are put in proper places. But, neither of these weak points undermine the cleverness and effectiveness of this great piece of cinema. "Psycho" is definitely a classic and deserves to be called so.