DVD Reviews

Psycho (50th Anniversary Edition) – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Oct 18, 2010, 16:01 GMT

One of the most shocking films of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is now available on Blu-ray featuring perfect picture, a newly created 5.1 audio track and bonus features that take you beyond the movie! Join the Master of Suspense on a chilling journey as an unsuspecting victim (Janet Leigh) visits the Bates Motel and falls prey to one of cinema’s most notorious psychopaths - Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Named ...more

Only the second Hitchcock pic to hit Blu-ray (the first being ‘North by Northwest’ from WB), I couldn’t have picked a better catalog horror film to get the high-def treatment and just in time for Halloween!

Although the only thing new is a 5.1 audio track, the film looks outstanding in high-def so fans, even fans with the three previous DVD releases, shouldn’t hesitate to pick this up.

If not Hitchcock's best, 'Psycho' is certainly his most iconic with isolated sequences that will forever be imprinted on filmgoer's minds. A master class of atmosphere, tension and genuine scares, 'Psycho' made sure no one ever felt safe in the shower again.

No doubt inspiring the score of slasher films that would appear in later generations in which the lack of subtlety would most likely appall big Al, a knife-wielding maniac was a fascinatingly nasty subject matter for 1960.

The film was based on the novel by Robert Bloch - who fictionalized a series of real-life murders in Wisconsin at the hands of Ed Gein, also the inspiration for 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (a more accurate account of these murders also showed up in the  1974 film 'Deranged'). Hitchcock bought the rights to the novel for a surprisingly thrifty $9,000.

Coming off of the huge undertaking of 'North by Northwest', Hitchcock decided to get down and dirty with the production of 'Psycho' shooting it for under 1 million dollars (not much even then) and using his television crew to cut down on time and costs. He also shot the film in black and white knowing that shooting in color would cause major censorship problems.

The film opens in Phoenix, Arizona where we meet Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) enjoying a lunch break rendezvous with her lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin). Madly in love, they meet up when they can while Sam tries to get past his financial hardships of paying alimony to his ex-wife.

Fate provides just the chance as $40,000 in cash drops right in her lap when her too-trusting employer allows her to deposit the cash in the bank on a Friday afternoon (i.e. no one will be the wiser till Monday morning). The temptation is too much and she takes off with the cash with a loose plan of heading off to California and starting a new life with Sam.

Not necessarily putting on her best poker face with a suspicious cop, she ends up tired and off the highway on a rainy night where she discovers that Bates Motel has plenty of vacancies.

Warmly welcomed by the kind owner Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), he invites her for sandwiches up at his house just a few steps up from the hotel but Marion quickly realizes something is amiss when she hears him and his mother engage in a screaming match up at the house.

After an extremely awkward conversation (where Marion seems to kindly suggest that maybe Norman should put his ill mother in the care of professionals which Norman doesn't react to kindly), she retreats to her room for the night which is the last time anyone ever sees her alive.

I can't imagine anyone not knowing how the events play out by know, but I'll tread carefully just in case. Marion's sister and Sam grow understandably worried about her sudden disappearance and with a detective hired to track the cash, the trail soon leads to Bates Motel. However, the mystery surrounding her disappearance might not quite be what it seems.

We the audience, of course, know part of the answer and are ahead of the investigation in certain ways but the full realization of what happened is one of the great shock twists of all time.

And this follows the very unsettling and novel at the time knocking off of the main character. We get to know Marion Crane and follow her escape for a third of the picture before she's suddenly ripped away from us, a development that makes the audience realize that anything can happen after that.

I can imagine a lot of walk-outs after that first shower sequence as all cinematic comforts, even of the genre, are thrown out the window. To this day, this is still masterly carried out, not to mention the actual cutting and framing of the shower sequence itself, a prerequisite for film 101 classes around the world.

Showing almost no on-screen gore, the sequence plays out a lot worse in people's heads than what is actually on screen. Tobe Hooper carries this tradition on with 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' which also features very little on-screen gore but lives on much nastier in memory.

A lot of the credit also lies with the performances and Bernard Herrmann's flawless string orchestra score. The opening credits set to a piece of score that already seems to playing out to high tension is a marvel and later picked up from M. Night Shymalan for the opening of 'Signs'.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates was key, giving the role a child-like innocence that’s sympathetic during and even after the big reveal. It's a marvelous performance that he could never really shake in subsequent years and eventually gave up. He returned to the well a number of times for inferior sequels (although 'Psycho II' does actually have some merit).
Psycho was previously released on DVD three times - the first being a wrongly framed non-anamorphic collector’s edition, the second a better ‘masterpiece’ collection and two years ago the much improved ‘Legacy Series’ edition which was digitally remastered. This Blu-ray, of course, trumps them all with a fantastic video presentation and a brand new 5.1 aud track.

The 1.85:1 1080p encode still features a slight layer of grain which is appropriate for its age but the black and white images now pop like never before. The dusty landscapes, the run-down charm of the hotel, the benign but unmistakably creepy twinkle in Norman Bates eyes.

All special features have been carried over from the various DVD releases so while there’s nothing really new, there’s still a wealth of great extras here to revisit. And if you’re new to ‘Psycho’, well, you’re in for a treat.

Extras from the twelve-year old collector’s edition DVD (12 years old!) are carried over in the form of 'Newsreel Footage', 'The Shower Scene with and without Music' and most notably 'The Making of Psycho', an hour and a half documentary that covers all thing 'Psycho'. It was great on the original release and its great now and a must see for fans. 'Production Notes', 'Production Drawings' and various 'Trailers' were also featured on the old release.

Special features from the 2-year old Legacy Series DVD start off with a commentary from Stephen Rebello (author of 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho') who is an obvious expert on Hitchcock and the film itself. Nary a dry spot, Rebello provides a constant supply of anecdotes and information.

Also included is 'The Shower Scene - Storyboards by Saul Bass', ‘The Psycho Archives’, 'In the Master's Shadow - Hitchcock Legacy' a half-hour featurette that gathers comments and interviews from contemp film professionals and 'Hitchcock/Truffaut Interview Excerpts' discussing 'Psycho'.

The only thing that seems to be missing from the old DVD is an episode of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' entitled 'Lamb to the Slaughter'.

The film itself is beyond reproach, a classic piece of cinema and one of the most influential genre films of all time. Endlessly studied and scrutinized, it's a film no fan of film should be without and this Blu-ray provides the best possible presentation.

So what are you waiting for? Call Mom up and invite her over for a Halloween screening. After all, a boy’s best friend is his mother.

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