I’m not the biggest fan of Horror movies and it’s rare that a movie terrifies me once, let alone over repeated viewings. One of those prestigious films on my short list is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
This was the first Hitchcock film I watched as a kid. I saw it on video (maybe it was on TV) when I was about 10 years old and it scared the hell out of me. It has never ceased scaring the hell out of me.
Psycho must be on any list of Halloween Horror movie viewing. It simply must be.
But you have to have the right mindset to watch it and enjoy it. I’ve been fortunate enough to catch it on the big screen a few times over the last few years and more than once I’ve been shocked by the reaction of the audience. Sure, this film is dated to the point where it looks like a period piece, and it’s made with storytelling techniques that are the foundation upon which all of modern thriller cinema is built upon. Audiences I’ve seen it with seem to have mistaken this film for a comedy and it drives me up the wall.
So, do yourself a favor and watch it in the proper setting.
Dim the lights on a dark, moonlit night. Watch it with your most squeamish friend. Even better if they haven’t seen it before.
Then, hit play.
Don’t pause the film, don’t turn it off for any reason and don’t say a word. Pay careful attention, investing yourself into the whole of the film. Back when the film was released, Hitchcock forced movie theatres to enforce rules for watching the film. There were lobby cards outside theatres playing the film reading:
We won’t allow you to cheat yourself. You must see PSYCHO from the very beginning. Therefore, do not expect to be admitted into the theatre after the start of each performance of the picture. We say no one — and we mean no one — not even the manager’s brother, the President of the United States, or the Queen of England (God bless her)!
And I think that’s excellent advice even today.
It’s difficult to discuss the film, knowing that most people these days haven’t seen it. Do they know the secrets of the film? Do they know how carefully it builds? How well the murders play out? How well it turns on a dime, switching main characters at will, forcing you, and them, to constantly reevaluate the possibilities of what is going on.
Hitchcock knew the best way to promote the film was to give away no secrets and to tease curiosity. Here’s one of the original trailers for the film and I think it’s perfect:
Here’s a more modern trailer, cut by a fan, that does a better job of getting a modern audience hooked, but I think it shows a bit more than Hitchcock ever intended to someone who hasn’t seen the film. What it does showcase beautifully, however, is Bernard Herrmann’s haunting, all-strings score for the film.
The scariest movies, in my opinion, are ones where people are the monsters… And Psycho is one of the best at that.
It’s also one of the few, true horror films Hitchcock ever made. He was more into thrillers and this is truly the birth of the slasher genre.
If you’ve spent a lot of time watching slashers, you’ll recognize many techniques they use in films today in Psycho.
But my point is this: watch this investing everything into the story. Suspend your disbelief for the time period and the era in which it was made and you will have one of the most terrified movie-watching experiences of your life.
You can pick up the Blu-ray right now on Amazon.
And, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES, are you to EVER watch Gus Van Sant’s remake. Ever. It’s a horrible piece of filth and needs to die in a fire.