Psycho

I rarely review movies here, but a recent cleaning out of my house has caused me to put together a small backlog of DVDs that I haven't watched yet. Among these is a 4-DVD collection of Hitchcock films Trev let me borrow a year ago so that I could watch Rear Window. Window was good, but on Friday night I finally watched another movie in the collection, Psycho, and I feel like it's a better film. Going into it, I knew two things about Psycho that I assume everyone knows- the shower scene where the pretty blonde gets murdered, and the iconic Norman Bates, the creepy motel owner with Mommy issues. But man, the plot surprised me. It took plenty of completely unexpected twists. I won't reveal most of these because I wouldn't want to ruin the story (Seriously, watch the movie. It's ranked #24 on IMDB currently) and I'm surprised I had never heard of the big reveal at the end of the movie- it makes such perfect sense, but Hitchcock throws a few good red herrings out there to throw you off. I really wasn't sure of much until the credits rolled. The acting is fantastic, especially Anthony Perkins in the role he would return to several times in his life, Norman Bates. I expected Bates to be a typical creep, but Perkins made him a charismatic and genuinely likable guy for a good portion of the movie. Surprising! Also surprising was pretty much any death scene. I read on IMDb that Hitchcock specifically reshot some scenes from a different angle because he didn't want to "prepare the audience for a shock." So he filmed death scenes like any other regular scene, just with someone getting murdered in it. Awesome! So yeah, between Psycho and the two Hitchcock movies I have seen before (Rear Window and Vertigo) I have to say I'm damn impressed by Alfred Hitchcock's movies- they certainly have staying power.