Alfred Hitchcock is much appreciated now but this film especially stands out in American culture because it was a first rate horror film when that was an anomaly. It has a chilling score, a notorious villain, and a sequence that is one of the most famous in film history.

*May Contain Spoilers

Directed by Hitchcock and starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, and Vera Miles, this film is intense from the opening sequence. Marion Crane seems to be your average love-struck woman stuck in her job. However everything quickly changes for her after she runs off with $40,000 that had been entrusted to her. Before she can get it to her boyfriend she must stop for the night at the Bates Motel. She rents a room and meets the timid, unassuming proprietor Norman. Soon it becomes obvious that he likes her but his domineering mother does not approve. Then later when Marion is taking a shower she is brutally murdered. Soon the situation becomes even more confused when a private investigator winds up missing. Marion’s sister and boyfriend resolve to go to the motel themselves. Little do they know the shocking events that await them. Undoubtedly Hitchcock’s most famous film, Psycho shakes the nerves and excites. Furthermore, it solidified Norman Bates as one of the most notorious villains of all time .

5/5 Stars