Hitch #49 - Psycho (1960)

This is the first time I’ve watched Psycho for fourteen years - there are Hitch films I can watch over and over again but Psycho isn’t one of them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to make of it, I know it’s a good film, maybe a great film - the last time I watched it in 2012 I gave it an 8/10 - but I wasn’t sure whether it was a film that I would still like.

The next showing of Psycho is in 2040

Watching it again and the key thing that came to mind was that I have no idea what it would be like to watch not knowing the twist. I can’t remember that first time, and to be honest there’s a fair chance that there never really was a first time because by the time I was watching films regularly (and at will) in the 70s the twist was so well known that maybe I never had the joy of not knowing.

However I’m not sure how much of an issue that is, it’s not a film that relies only on that twist - it still has so much going for it… here’s a list:

• Anthony Perkins is amazing, the initial charm and then the darkness creeping in, and then the sweet charm again. Actually the whole cast are perfect.
• It may have been analysed to death but that doesn’t stop the whole shower scene’s astonishing presentation . It doesn’t lose any of it’s horror or power from the familiarity. I imagine watching it last week was no different than watching it fourteen years ago, or whenever I first saw it.
• Arbogast’s murder is also amazing, and shocking - maybe more shocking - and the stylised fall down the stairs makes it better.
• Herrmann’s score for those two scenes was astounding - it did feel that accasionally his score was a bit over-dramatic when it didn’t need to be but when it needed to be dramatic it dialled the drama right up to where it needed to be! Actually I wonder how much Herrmann’s score helps to make knowing the twist irrelevant?
• Lila’s encounter with Norman’s mother, and then with Norman as his mother, in the fruit cellar is probably the most shocking of all - and knowing what’s coming doesn’t change that. I think it might be one of the most astounding ends to a film ever… except…

… it’s not the end. Hitch just messes everything up with the tiresome psychiatrist’s monlogue which as well as being tiresome is also outrageously insensitive considering there are people who loved Marion in the room listening to his psychaitric mumbo-jumbo.

I was close to upgrading this to a 9 but the psychiatrist bumped it back down again. I’m not sure it’s a film you can like but you can’t help but appreciate it as a spectacle. I tend to prefer my horror to be silly and shlocky (give me Hammer over Hitch’s horror every time) but I know this is a great film, and I don’t doubt that will change next time I watch it… in fourteen years time.

• Source: Download since our DVD copy was a bit ropey - it had the titles and Sam’s letter in German but the film was in English.
• Rating: 8/10
• Hitchcock Zone: Psycho (1960)