X
- 1960
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
- 1960
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
Summary A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) under the domination of his mother.
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch
- 1960
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
- 1960
- Approved
- Paramount Pictures
- 1 h 49 m
Psycho
8.7
Where to Watch
Summary A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) under the domination of his mother.
Directed By: Alfred Hitchcock
Written By: Joseph Stefano, Robert Bloch
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
97
94% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 18 Critic Reviews
97
94% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Every minute detail and artistic decision Hitchcock makes contributes to the film’s eeriness, though it’s Leigh and Perkins’ captivating performances that turn this into the terrifying tale so entrenched in Hollywood history.
Psycho should be seen at least three times by any discerning film-goer, the first time for the sheer terror of the experience, and on this occasion I fully agree with Hitchcock that only a congenital spoilsport would reveal the plot; the second time for the macabre comedy inherent in the conception of the film; and the third for all the hidden meanings and symbols lurking beneath the surface of the first American movie since “Touch of Evil” to stand in the same creative rank as the great European films. [This was Mr. Sarris's first appearance in the Voice.]
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 623 User Ratings
8.7
93% Positive
578 Ratings
578 Ratings
2% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 623 User Ratings
8.7
93% Positive
578 Ratings
578 Ratings
2% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
5% Negative
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
First Time watching it in 2023. So I didnt know what was about to happen here. At the end it just blew me away ... it made me respect black and white movies even more.
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The original Slasher movie is a one of the best Black and White Films I've ever seen and for good reason, considering that the director has the last name of Hitchcock.
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He has very shrewdly interwoven crime, sex and suspense, blended the real and the unreal in fascinating proportions and punctuated his film with several quick, grisly and unnerving surprises.
Psycho, in its dark and sordid extravagance, remains utterly contemporary, in its subject as well as in its production.
Felt in the full impact of a theatrical screening (with the pleasure of seeing patrons reflexively kick or stiffen at the sight of Miles startled by her mirrored reflection), its power is not just that of a showman’s calibrated scare machine, but of a somber fugue on the trapped 20th-century creatures who inhabit its world, clawing but never budging an inch.
Perkins gives a remarkably effective in-a-dream kind of performance as the possessed young man. Others play it straight, with equal competence.
What is offered instead is merely gruesome. The trail leads to a sagging, swamp-view motel and to one of the messiest, most nau seating murders ever filmed. At close range, the camera watches every twitch, gurgle, convulsion and hemorrhage in the process by which a living human becomes a corpse...The nightmare that follows is expertly gothic, but the nausea never disappears.
A woman, on the run after stealing a large sum of money, stops at a lonely motel, run by the young and creepy Norman Bates.
Simply one of the best films in the history of cinema, as well as one of the best horror films in the history of cinema, shot by one of the best directors in the history of cinema. Hats off to the great Hitchcock.
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an average classic film to watch mr alfred was always been brilliant in the thriller genre
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As this film began, I was quite captivated. I was interested to find out what happened to these characters. Then Norman Bates appears, and he is exactly the kind of character we want to see in movies of this genre. He portrays an inadvertently unsettling persona. You get the distinct impression that you are dealing with a damaged character who doesn't display that harm the way other characters might.
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i personally dont know how the hell this movie got a must watch award. nothing happens for 70 percent of the movie and then at the very end of the movie it gets to the good point so if you want to watch this movie just skip most of it and at that point why bother. this is a great example on how movies have improved over time and horror movies nowadays are actually scary *yawn*
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 4 Nominations
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Online Film & Television Association
• 3 Wins & 3 Nominations
