Psycho (1960)

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While 'Halloween' is often toted as the start of the slasher genre, I prefer to think of it as the film that got things going. Before that, you had movies like 'Black Christmas', but 'Halloween' just had a strength to it. Perhaps the strength mostly comes from casting Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead role; daughter of Janet Lee, featured here in one of the most famous movie moments of all time - the shower stab, with the "ree-ree-ree" music!

This film is a milestone in horror, technically being the first big slasher movie. It's brought to us by the master of suspense, himself, Alfred Hitchcock, and it honestly still holds up to this day. Certain things have tried to duplicate it, like an awful 1998 remake, and a much better TV series in 2013, but no matter how they try, nothing can quite grasp the feeling of the classic 1960 film, where it all began.

It all opens with real-estate secretary, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), providing us with yet another tie to 'Halloween'. They are talking about marriage and the unaffordability of it with Sam's debts. Some time after, Marion is left a $40,000 cash payment on a property. Instead of bringing it to the bank to deposit it, she instead takes the money and runs, headed to Sam's house in Fairvale, CA. On the way, she is caught in a rainstorm, misses her turn, and ends up at the Bates Motel. There, she is greeted by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) who gives her a room for the night.

It's Norman Bates' character that really makes this movie shine, as even today, there's something terribly unsettling about him. He plays the role so well, as a bashful, almost boy-like man who just plain gives you that bad vibe. The only other actor I can think of who delivers the subtle horror of a serial killer while being polite is probably Anthony Hopkins from 'Silence of the Lambs', although I'm sure there are other examples between the two films. The two have a conversation where things intensify, and it all leads to that famous shower scene, killing off a main character only about half way through the film. To this day, that scene is intense, especially when the music stops, everything is still, and you see the bloody water pour down the drain. It's as though the film says "I'm not playing around here."

The latter half of the film involves Marion's sister, Lila, coming into the picture. Together with Sam and a private investigator, Milton Arborgast (Martin Balsam), they all try to get down to the bottom of why Marion has disappeared without a trace. Meanwhile, Norman Bates tries to cover his tracks while dealing with his overprotective and strict "mother". I think by this point we all pretty well know the big twist there, but when I first saw this years and years ago and new nothing about it other than the shower scene existing (I was still in elementary school, I think), it did manage to catch me off guard.

In a time when I thought black and white equaled boring, this was one movie that came along and showed me otherwise. Over the years and after a fair bit of re-watching, it has become a personal favorite piece of cinematic art from the 60s. With franchises like 'Halloween', 'Friday the 13th' and 'Elm Street', I wonder where those would be now if 'Psycho' didn't plant the seed. I strongly consider this film to be the Grandfather of slasher horror ('Halloween' is the father). It is just plain legendary, and held high in my opinion as perhaps the quintessential Hitchcock movie. If you haven't seen this, you haven't seen wat Hitchcock was capable of - like making Janet Leigh terrified of ever showering again.

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