movie review on psycho

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Real-Life Heroes on YouTube for Tweens and Teens

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Classic Hitchcock horror masterpiece still thrills.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

No real positive messages.

One character has some major mother issues, and ev

The iconic shower scene never shows the knife touc

A couple is shown post-sex, though they are clothe

Some drinking, but no one acts drunk. Cigarette sm

Parents need to know that Psycho is one of the scariest movies ever made, even though it's far less explicit than a lot of what's in theaters now. Still, this is a frightening movie, and judgment should be used about which kids will enjoy it and which will find it disturbing. The famous shower scene never…

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

One character has some major mother issues, and even the protagonists aren't innocent, as they steal money and have affairs.

Violence & Scariness

The iconic shower scene never shows the knife touching flesh, but there is blood, and the character's dead face and eyes are shown up close. There are also several very frightening scenes involving a corpse. A man is stabbed, with slash marks across his face.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple is shown post-sex, though they are clothed. A man spies on a woman as she removes her blouse, revealing her bra. Nudity in shower scene but nothing sensitive shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Some drinking, but no one acts drunk. Cigarette smoking. A secretary makes reference to taking tranquilizers to help her with her headaches.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Psycho is one of the scariest movies ever made, even though it's far less explicit than a lot of what's in theaters now. Still, this is a frightening movie, and judgment should be used about which kids will enjoy it and which will find it disturbing. The famous shower scene never shows the knife touching flesh, but it's still terrifying. There are also several very frightening scenes involving a corpse. On a less scary note, a character steals money from her boss' client, and a couple is shown post-sex, though they are clothed. There's some drinking and smoking. That said, this is a classic of filmmaking, one of the most influential and respected films ever made. It's terrifying and brilliant, and families with teens can enjoy the scares together. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (48)
• Kids say (163)

Based on 48 parent reviews

A perfect film

A classic that should be watched by all, what's the story.

In PSYCHO, Marion Crane ( Janet Leigh ) steals money from her boss' client and skips town. She drives for hours and then, exhausted and nervous, stops in a remote area at the Bates Motel, run by Norman Bates (a delightfully creepy Anthony Perkins ). Norman is cheerful, but he's nervous and hiding something. He invites Marion to share some dinner with him and mentions his overbearing mother (whose silhouette is seen in a window of the big looming house that sits on the hill just above the motel). Norman's hobby is taxidermy, and he also happens to have in his possession the extra key to Marion's room ...

Is It Any Good?

This Hitchcock film is a classic, and for good reason. Everything about Psycho is perfection, from the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography to every single performance to the famous Bernard Herrmann soundtrack to some of the most suspenseful and frightening scenes ever filmed. If you consider yourself a film buff, this is a must-see. There is some real violence in this film, but it's not at all explicit, making it in some ways scarier than the gore-fests that are so popular now.

It's a film that works on many levels. It's truly scary, but it's also a psychological mystery and a couple of different kinds of love story. All the performances are excellent, and the screenplay is top-notch, but Hitchcock is the real star, manipulating the audience in every frame, making it perfect for repeat viewing -- there's always something new to see. It's a great way to introduce older kids to Hitchcock and may spark interest in his other wonderful films.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Hitchcock's style and techniques and the way he uses the camera and lighting to tell the story. It's fun to go back over Psycho and look for clues to the ending, too.

Much of the violence in this movie is implied rather than shown, unlike so many horror movies that have been released since Psycho . Does implied violence seen scarier to you than graphic violence? Why, or why not?

What are some of the ways in which this movie is a classic, and how is it also very much rooted in the time when it was released?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 16, 1960
• On DVD or streaming : September 2, 2003
• Cast : Anthony Perkins , Janet Leigh , Vera Miles
• Director : Alfred Hitchcock
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 109 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : May 14, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Rear Window

North by Northwest

Best Horror Movies

Thriller movies, related topics.

• Book Characters

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘psycho’: thr’s 1960 review.

On June 16, 1960, Alfred Hitchcock premiered his iconic mystery thriller in New York.

By Jack Harrison

Jack Harrison

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

On June 16, 1960, Alfred Hitchcock premiered his iconic mystery thriller Psycho in New York, with secrecy as the theme when it came to the plot. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

New York — The great filmic talents of Alfred Hitchcock, his superb artistry, technical mastery, skill and planning are very much in evidence in Psycho , his new Paramount release which opened here yesterday in a special engagement prior to its general release in August. This is a first-rate mystery thriller, full of visual shocks and surprises which are heightened by the melodramatic realism of the production. It is certain to be one of the big grossers of the summer.

Related Stories

'survivor' season 1: thr's 2000 review, 'deadwood': thr's 2004 review.

Hitchcock’s insistence on secrecy concerning the plot during production and in the “blind selling” and exploitation campaign is completely justified by the surprise macabre ending. And, because of the nature of the film, with a key character being murdered in the first 20 minutes, the exhibition policy banning admissions after the start of the picture is appropriate to a complete understanding and enjoyment of the film. Paramount has used these factors to very good advantage in its merchandising.

The film opens with a typical Hitchcock touch, a long slow pan shot, over the town of Phoenix, Arizona, swinging down to a hotel window to reveal a torrid love scene typical of the French “new wave” school. The main story is laid against the background of an isolated motel and an adjoining eerie mansion. As in all Hitchcock films, the camera effects and explorations here are a vital and exciting element, establishing a weird realistic quality, sharpening the terror, building the suspense.

There are two murders on camera and innumerable others referred to including a matricide. One of the murders, that of Janet Leigh, takes place while she is taking a shower and there is enough blood on screen to satisfy the most bloodthirsty movie fans. The other murder takes place at the top of a staircase and the camera follows the headlong fall of the blood covered murder victim all the way down the stairs.

Anthony Perkins gives by far the best performance of his career in the title role. As the young, sensitive and amiable proprietor of the motel he maintains an appearance of innocence even while disposing of the remains of the murder victims purportedly killed by his mother. Miss Leigh is excellent as the young woman who steals $40,000 to buy off her unhappiness and solve her boyfriend’s money problems, only to be murdered at the hotel. John Gavin is very good as the boyfriend and Vera Miles is splendid as the devoted sister, both instrumental in solving the murders. Martin Balsam as a private investigator, John McIntire as a small town sheriff, and Simon Oakland as a psychiatrist contribute sharp and effective characterizations.

Maybe it’s not cricket to give away the ending, but since hardly anyone plays cricket and since the picture’s playing here you might as well know that Perkins’ psychotic split has him assuming the dual roles of himself and his mother. And, as Hitchcock says, the mother is a homicidal maniac.

Joseph Stefano’s screenplay from the novel by Robert Block gives Hitchcock an opportunity to use all his considerable talents in the building of a shocker which makes brilliant use of John L. Russell’s outstanding photography, Bernard Herrmann’s highly effective musical score, the wonderfully atmospheric settings of George Milo and the fine art direction of Joseph Burly and Robert Clatworthy.

Paramount won’t let anyone enter theatres where Psycho is playing after the picture starts. No one will want to leave before it is over. — Jack Harrison, originally published on June 17, 1960.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Halsey reveals private health battle and new album: “lucky to be alive”, wendell pierce says his housing application was denied due to race: “bigots are real”, christina applegate says of ongoing depression after ms diagnosis: “i don’t enjoy living”, wwe rising star tiffany stratton signs with paradigm (exclusive), the-dream, prolific songwriter for beyoncé, accused of rape, sex trafficking, kanye west sued for sexual harassment by ex-assistant.

• Where to Start with Italian Neorealism
• I Saw the TV Glow (2024) Review
• Sting (2024) Review
• In a Violent Nature (2024) Review
• Mad Max Movies Ranked

Psycho (1960) Review

Psycho (1960) Director: Alfred Hitchcock Screenwrites: Joseph Stefano Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, John McIntire

Some films enter cultural consciousness almost by accident. They might not be the greatest of cinematic spectacles, but something about them triggers a nerve. A snatch of dialogue, a specific shot, a particular character. Some films manage to somehow tip the scales the instant they’re released. For too many reasons to name, Psycho is considered one of the greatest films of all time, and it rightly deserves that honour.

Directed by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock (the Master of Suspense behind such films as Rear Window , Vertigo , North by Northwest , and dozens of others), the film takes Robert Bloch’s original novel and, with a few tweaks, in the words of This Is Spinal Tap , dials it up to eleven. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) works as an estate agent, spending her lunch hours with her lover, Sam, whenever he’s in town. Asked to take $40,000 in cash to the bank, she makes the sudden decision to take the money and run across the country to Sam in a bid to start a new life. A storm hits and, lost in the rain, she winds up at the now legendary Bates Motel, with a sinister American Gothic mansion overlooking the motel, run by the shy Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) and his mother, who in his words, “isn’t quite herself today.”

The film was hailed as a masterpiece almost immediately after release, which when you consider the now well-documented troubles it took to get the film made (included in the 2012 biopic Hitchcock , starring Anthony Hopkins) is one of those incredible stories that happens only once in a blue moon. Using cheaper black-and-white film with his TV crew and funding it all himself, Hitchcock uses every ounce of cinematic mastery possible to keep us squirming in our seats from opening to end. Even before the film, Hitchcock made and released a six-minute trailer , a whole miniature documentary film in itself, to advertise Psycho . Film critics were not allowed to see the film ahead of time to keep the twists a secret, and audiences were not allowed in once a showing had begun, something now standard practice but radical at the time. Everything said that this was going to be an event movie, a sensation thriller, in the way that Wilkie Collins’s “The Woman In White” had created the now-called ‘sensation literature’ genre just over a century earlier in 1859.

What a film we are treated to. The tense opening score from Bernard Hermann, using only a string quartet for the whole film to match Hitchcock’s black and white shooting, grabs you from the opening bars and doesn’t stop. When the famous shower scene kicks in, with the violins shrieking at the top of their range, it is so incredible that Hitchcock immediately recognised its quality by doubling Hermann’s salary and putting him second billing in the credits only underneath himself. These strings follow incredible performances from Leigh, Perkins, and Vera Miles, through the city and out into the sticks of the Bates Motel, a sight now so famous we almost recognise it without consciously understanding where from.

Every shot is placed so delicately, with such expertise and control, that it’s impossible to detect a flaw. When a single shot is required, Hitch keeps it. When it requires 50 cuts in 45 seconds, he goes for it. When the angle needs to change, there it moves. It is the result of 35 years of directorial triumphs and failures to know with a guttural instinct exactly how the tale should be told. Auteur theory is often made a mockery of, but there’s no denying that Hitchcock’s fingerprints are in every frame of the finished product. His Oscar nomination for the direction is well-earned and well-deserved.

Perkins’s naïve Norman is instantly endearing, and Perkins’s lack of an Academy Award nomination is inexplicable. Never mind that the other nominations that year were Burt Lancaster, Trevor Howard, Jack Lemmon, Laurence Olivier, and Spencer Tracy; Perkins’s performance has gone on to become immortal in cinema in a way that few other performances have done before or since. Leigh and Miles put in likewise iconic turns as the two Crane sisters, but it is Perkins that cinema will always remember. It is a trailblazing performance, masterful in its balance, looked to and imitated but never repeated, even by Perkins in future sequels.

All of these elements allow a masterful script to be put on screen in a blaze of glory. Never pausing, it always pushes on in a blood-curdling display of complex simplicity, helped by almost every scene ending with some kind of motion (a character leaving the room, driving off, etc) to allow a fluid surging forward from one scene to the next, and giving those that do not an extra punch to the subconscious gut. The dialogue is sublime, and the adaptation improves upon the novel by changing up Norman to be much more likeable from his literary counterpart, making the finale that much more devastating.

Cropping up in films such as Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Michelangelo Antonioni Blow-Up , with even Francis Ford Coppola getting his start from Roger Corman with a pitched rip-off of Psycho , Hitchcock’s masterful thriller continues to influence writers, directors, and actors to this day. Not a slasher film in the world doesn’t look to Psycho in some way, not a thriller conceived doesn’t take a page from its book. A fairly blunt explanation at the end as an exposition dump doesn’t even begin to tarnish the film, leaving a legacy we have only begun to scratch the surface of, only just begun to see come to light.

Score: 24/24

Share with your friends / followers ...

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Austin butler to star in darren aronofsky crime thriller.

Austin Butler is to lead a new film from Sony Pictures and 'Powers'

‘The Batman Part II’ Delayed by a Year

2024 oscars winners – full list.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother. A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

• Alfred Hitchcock
• Joseph Stefano
• Robert Bloch
• Anthony Perkins
• Janet Leigh
• 1.5K User reviews
• 243 Critic reviews
• 97 Metascore
• 8 wins & 14 nominations total

• Norman Bates

• Marion Crane

• Det. Milton Arbogast

• Sheriff Al Chambers

• Dr. Fred Richman

• Tom Cassidy

• (as Pat Hitchcock)

• George Lowery

• Mrs. Chambers

• California Charlie

• Highway Patrol Officer
• Policeman on Steps
• (uncredited)
• Church Member

• Congregation Member
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

'Psycho' Scenes: Watch the Mashup

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia When the cast and crew began work on the first day, they had to raise their right hands and swear an oath not to divulge one word of the story. Alfred Hitchcock also withheld the ending part of the script from his cast until he needed to shoot it.
• Goofs When Lila approaches Mother in the fruit cellar, Mrs. Bates is seated in a four-legged chair. After Lila touches the corpse, it slowly spins around as if it's sitting on a swiveling chair. The effect was achieved by a prop man lying on his back rotating a camera head with wheels underneath Mother.

[last lines]

Norma Bates : [voiceover in police custody, as Norman is thinking] It's sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. But I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They'll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man... as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do... suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly..."

• Crazy credits The opening credits appear in a montage of horizontal/vertical bars moving across the screen.
• Alternate versions On the Universal DVD, Norman can be heard (not seen) screaming "I'm Norma Bates!" as Sam Loomis rushes in to stop him from murdering Lila. The scream is not present in at least some release prints.
• Connections Edited into Psycho II (1983)

User reviews 1.5K

• Jan 16, 1999
• What is 'Psycho' about?
• Is "Psycho" based on a book?
• Why does Marion steal the money?
• September 8, 1960 (United States)
• United States
• Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
• Psycho House and Bates Motel, Backlot Universal Studios, Universal City, California, USA (exterior of Bates Motel and house)
• Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
• Shamley Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $806,947 (estimated)
• $32,000,000
• $32,061,457

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Black and White
• Dolby Digital
• 1.37 : 1 (original & negative ratio, open matte)

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Psycho (United States, 1960)

Halloween is rightfully considered to be the father of the modern slasher movie. Ultimately, all the Friday the 13ths, Nightmare on Elm Streets , and Screams owe their existence to that one low-budget film that crept its way across motion picture screens in 1978. Yet, as important as Halloween was to the way that the horror genre developed during the '80s and '90s, John Carpenter's thriller did not invent this brand of terror; it re-invented it by paying homage to one of the most frightening films of all time: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho . (Not only did Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, the daughter of Psycho 's Janet Leigh, but the character name of "Sam Loomis" was re-used.)

There are those who will argue that Psycho is Hitchcock's best film. I am not one of them. Psycho is a brilliant excursion into fear that pushes many of our primal buttons, but it lacks the story and character complexity of Vertigo and Rear Window . Yet none of Hitchcock's films had as profound an impact upon the American psyche as this one. When it was initially released in 1960, it was a huge box office hit (there are stories of 3-mile long lines at drive-in entrances), and its popularity has not waned over the last four decades. In fact, the fascination with the film has grown to the point where 1998 will see the unthinkable: a remake.

However, although the plot can be redone, the characters recycled, and even the music reused, no one - not Gus Van Sant or any other director - can recapture the uniqueness of this movie. The very idea of remaking Psycho is bad, because Hitchcock's version is definitive. The shower scene alone stands as one of the greatest single examples of execution and editing in the history of cinema. How can anyone re-do a sequence that was perfect in its initial form? And how can Vince Vaughn succeed in the role of Norman Bates, when everyone associates the part with Anthony Perkins? Vaughn will be seen as more of an impostor than Roger Moore when he first took over for Sean Connery as 007.

Actually, going by the description of Norman Bates in Robert Bloch's novel Psycho , upon which screenwriter Joseph Stafano based his script, there was no way Perkins could have been considered for the part. Bloch's vision of Norman is a fat, balding, middle-aged voyeur. To make the character more sympathetic, Stefano completely reworked him, and Hitchcock was able to use Perkins. The result is one of the cinema's most chilling and memorable performances. Perkins became so identified with Norman Bates that it altered the trajectory of his career. For years after Psycho , he shunned talking about the part until, in the '70s, he finally made peace with Norman, and eventually returned to play the role in three Psycho sequels.

With Psycho , Hitchcock dabbled in cinematic taboos, pushing the censorship envelope. For example, this was the first American motion picture to feature a toilet being flushed (most movies of the era didn't even acknowledge the existence of toilets). Also, Janet Leigh is shown in her underwear on more than one occasion, and, during the famous shower scene, it's possible to see hints of flesh (most of which belong to a body double). The script also features a man speaking the word "transvestite" - a line that survived in the film only after a Herculean struggle on Stefano's part.

The film starts out in traditional fashion for a Hitchcock thriller. A woman, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), desperate to find a way to be with her lover, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), embezzles money from her boss, then goes on the lam. She's not an apt criminal, however, and she leaves a wide trail. A used car salesman assesses her nervous mood and uses it to bilk her out of some extra cash. A somewhat-ominous policeman shadows her, almost to the point of stalking. If anyone could ever be said to look and act guilty, it's Marion. Eventually, she ends up at the out-of-the-way Bates Motel, where the shy-but-kind manager, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), offers her a room, a meal, and a sympathetic ear. During her conversation with Norman, when he speaks about the traps that life places everyone in, Marion resolves to return on the following morning and give back the money. Events of the night, which involve violence and the jealous rage of Norman's twisted mother, put an end to Marion's plans. Soon after, others arrive at the Bates Motel looking for her, including Loomis, a private investigator named Arbogast (Martin Balsam), and Marion's sister, Lila (Vera Miles). They all make horrifying discoveries.

Story-wise, Psycho is not extraordinary; its true ingeniousness lies in its construction. Hitchcock and Stafano have developed the movie in such a way that it consistently flouts expectations. There are two major surprises: the shower scene murder and the final revelation about Mother. A viewer who sees the film for the first time without knowing about either will experience the full impact of what Hitchcock intended. The greatest shock for the uninitiated is the early exit of Janet Leigh. This is doubly unexpected because, to this point, the screenplay had tricked us into accepting Marion as the main character. When events dispel that illusion, and the point-of-view shifts to Norman Bates', viewers are understandably nonplused. In order to keep this crucial aspect of the film secret and intact when Psycho opened in 1960, there were no advance screenings and no one was admitted to a showing after the feature had started.

Whenever anyone speaks about Psycho , the first images that come to mind are those of Janet Leigh being hacked to death in the shower. The scene is so famous that even people who have not seen the movie are aware of it. Bernard Herrmann's strident, discordant music has been used in countless other movies to denote the appearance of a "psycho." The brilliance of the scene lies in the editing. Those who go frame-by-frame through it will note how much is left to the imagination. We see a knife, blood (actually chocolate syrup), water, and a woman's naked body (with certain parts strategically concealed from the camera), but only briefly is the penetration of the blade into the flesh shown*. The full horror of the murder is only hinted at on-screen. It takes the power of the viewer's imagination to fill in the blanks. (Presumably, that's the reason why so many of today's unimaginative movie-goers, who are accustomed to having a screenful of gore presented for their consumption, find Psycho tame.) It's not surprising that the movie generated a wave of shower phobia - some people, made aware of their vulnerability during a shower, started taking baths. (Janet Leigh is one such victim -- she claims that she never took a shower again after making the film.)

Today, Psycho still holds up extraordinarily well (another reason why a remake seems pointless). With the exception of Halloween , no latter-day horror/thriller has been capable of generating as many goosebumps. The black-and-white photography is perfect for the film's tone and mood - the starkness of color would have blurred the nightmarish quality. The painstaking care with which Hitchcock composed every scene is evident in the quality of the final product. Psycho may not represent the master director's pinnacle, but it is the motion picture for which he is best known, and its legacy is inarguably one of the most far reaching of any film to come out of a Hollywood studio.

*As pointed out by reader John Upper, the popular "myth" about the Psycho shower scene is that the knife is never seen to penetrate the flesh. This is not true. In Upper's words, "...A frame-by-frame examination of the shower scene shows that the knife point disappears against the actress' torso just below her navel for the last three frames of one eight-frame sequence." In order to see the penetration, the movie must be run in slow-motion, but it actually happens, albeit only once and briefly.

Comments Add Comment

• Halloween (1978)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Blair Witch Project, The (1999)
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
• Captivity (2007)
• Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
• (There are no more better movies of Anthony Perkins)
• (There are no more worst movies of Anthony Perkins)
• Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962)
• (There are no more better movies of Vera Miles)
• (There are no more worst movies of Vera Miles)
• (There are no more better movies of John Gavin)
• (There are no more worst movies of John Gavin)

• Read What TIME’s Original Review of <i>Psycho</i> Got Wrong

Read What TIME’s Original Review of Psycho Got Wrong

F ifty-five years after its June 16, 1960, premiere, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is firmly entrenched in the cinematic canon. It altered the suspense genre forever, it changed what can be shown on screen — in addition to the reams of blood, it was the first film to show a flushing toilet — and it set the bar for the lengths to which a filmmaker would go to avoid spoilers.

But at the time of its release, not every critic guessed at the film’s lasting influence. Among those reviewers was TIME’s, who found Psycho just a little too much:

…the experienced Hitchcock fan might reasonably expect the unreasonable—a great chase down Thomas Jefferson’s forehead, as in North by Northwest , or across the rooftops of Monaco, as in To Catch a Thief . What is offered instead is merely gruesome. The trail leads to a sagging, swamp-view motel and to one of the messiest, most nauseating murders ever filmed. At close range, the camera watches every twitch, gurgle, convulsion and hemorrhage in the process by which a living human becomes a corpse.

Though the plot (graciously unspoiled by the review) was acknowledged as “expertly gothic,” the critic warned that “the nausea never disappears.” The final result, the critic noted, is “a spectacle of stomach-churning horror”—not guessing that audiences would see that as a good thing.

Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault: Psycho

How Hitchcock Turned a Small Budget Into a Great Triumph

More Must-Reads from TIME

• How Joe Biden Leads
• TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2024
• Javier Milei’s Radical Plan to Transform Argentina
• How Private Donors Shape Birth-Control Choices
• What Sealed Trump’s Fate : Column
• Are Walking Pads Worth It?
• 15 LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Write to Lily Rothman at [email protected]

Find anything you save across the site in your account

The Greatness of “Psycho”

The cinematic man of the year, at least in prominence, is Alfred Hitchcock. Not only was his “Vertigo” named the best film of all time in the decennial Sight and Sound poll but he’s the subject of two bio-pics—“ The Girl ” (which ran on HBO last month), about the making of “The Birds” and “Marnie,” and now “ Hitchcock ” (opening this Friday), about the making of “Psycho.”

“The Girl,” directed by Julian Jarrold, has a hectic pulp briskness that’s apt to its subject (mainly, Hitchcock’s intense attraction to Tippi Hedren and the way he used his power to pursue her and, when she spurned him, to punish her), but “Hitchcock,” directed by Sacha Gervasi, is the better movie—first, thanks to Anthony Hopkins’s performance. Toby Jones, playing Hitchcock in Jarrold’s film, gets the slyness and the pain, the sophistication and the frustration, but Hopkins has the timing down better and also gives off a wilder creative drive, blending fierce energy with a loftily ironic perspective; his Hitchcock sees more and sees more clearly—and has the will to do something about it. In part, the directors’ differing approaches to the stories is responsible for the differing performances; Gervasi treats “Psycho” as the greater achievement, and he does a much better job with Hitchcock’s artistry, which he unfolds in its practical details and also—clumsily but cleverly and movingly—pursues in its inner recesses.

“Hitchcock” isn’t a great film, but it tells a great story and caps it with a couple of very fine and memorable moments—and the story it tells is one that rises from deep in the heart of the movie business and remains central to the industry today. A couple of months ago, the talk here turned to the studios—whether their emphasis on franchise films is causing a decline in the artistic quality of Hollywood movies. I don’t think so, and wrote then that the rise of independent productions gives directors a freer hand to pursue even more distinctive work (whether “Moonrise Kingdom” or “Magic Mike,” “Hugo” or “Tree of Life,” “Black Swan” or “Somewhere”). This has always been the case, as in the late forties and nineteen-fifties, when the wave of wildly original films by such directors as Nicholas Ray, Otto Preminger, Sam Fuller, and Ida Lupino were made largely by independent producers who gained sudden influence in the wake of antitrust suits.

The story of “Hitchcock” is simple: looking to strike out in a new direction after making “North by Northwest” (which, by the way, I’ve always considered one of Hitchcock’s weaker and stodgier films), he chose (on the recommendation by his longtime assistant, Peggy Robertson—played, in Gervasi’s film, by Toni Collette) Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho.” But his studio, Paramount, refused to finance it—so Hitchcock made the movie with his own money, even mortgaging his house to do so. As it turns out (and as “Hitchcock” shows), “Psycho” made him a fortune; it was also, however, a flop with critics. In the Times , Bosley Crowther damned it with faint praise, writing that “Hitchcock, an old hand at frightening people, comes at you with a club in this frankly intended bloodcurdler”; he found it “slowly paced” and referring to its “old-fashioned melodramatics, however effective and sure.” In The New Yorker , John McCarten wrote , “Hitchcock does several spooky scenes with his usual éclat, and works diligently to make things as horrible as possible, but it’s all rather heavy-handed and not in any way comparable to the fine jobs he’s done in the not so distant past.” Pauline Kael didn’t review it (even when it ran in revival) but, in 1978, complained about it as “a borderline case of immorality… which, because of the director’s cheerful complicity with the killer, had a sadistic glee that I couldn’t quite deal with,” and she condescended to the shower scene as “a good dirty joke.”

Its great rave came from Andrew Sarris, who, in his first piece for the Village Voice , called Hitchcock “the most daring avant-garde film-maker in America today” and added:

“Psycho” should be seen at least three times by any discerning film-goer, the first time for the sheer terror of the experience, and on this occasion I fully agree with Hitchcock that only a congenital spoilsport would reveal the plot; the second time for the macabre comedy inherent in the conception of the film; and the third for all the hidden meanings and symbols lurking beneath the surface of the first American movie since “Touch of Evil” to stand in the same creative rank as the great European films. In a 2001 interview with Richard Schickel, Sarris said that this review proved controversial:

The Voice had all these readers—little old ladies who lived on the West Side, guys who had fought in the Spanish Civil War—and this seemed so regressive, to them, to say that Hitchcock was a great artist.

It’s not so controversial anymore, because the times have long since caught up with his obsessions—and with the notion of the popular as art. If anything, now inflation has set in regarding the praise of popular films as art (as with raves for “Lincoln,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” and “Anna Karenina”); critics are all too ready to extol any mass-market movie with the merest glimmer of personal concern, stylistic idiosyncrasy, or intellectual substance and to crown their directors as auteurs. One of the great changes in critical perception in the past fifty years—and perhaps in society at large—is the view of insidership; as the boundaries between pop and high culture have (rightly) fallen, a sort of populist or demagogic reversal has occurred—the desire and the ability to reach broad audiences has become a virtue in itself rather than an incidental and inconsequential artistic epiphenomenon. It doesn’t matter whether “Psycho” was a bigger hit than “North by Northwest” or whether “The Wrong Man” and “Marnie” were flops, although, of course, it mattered to the director. One of the noteworthy things about “Hitchcock” is that it illustrates how Hitchcock’s decision to work in a pulp vein was, above all, a change in artistic gears—as well as one that he thought through to its very release in order to make his investment good and turn the movie into a hit.

“Psycho” remains a demanding and disturbing movie; it conveys the thrill felt by a murderer as well as his torment, and it shows the proximity of sex—and of restrictive sexual morality—to violence. It’s ultimately an existential conundrum that blames nature itself as the source of deadly madness, and even the scene that Kael called “arguably—Hitchcock’s worst scene,” the psychiatrist’s explanation at the end—has a profound place in the schema: the doctor can diagnose and explain a phenomenon that he’s seemingly powerless to foresee or cure. There’s no redemptive ending, no love story that conquers all, no promise that such ills won’t be repeated.

Yet, for all its philosophically revelatory drama and symbolism, “Psycho” remains a movie made with Hitchcock’s own money—but not a movie about himself. The modernistic version of “Psycho” would be Hitchcock’s own story of mortgaging his house to make “Psycho”—and making clear the personal significance of the story of “Psycho.” That’s where Gervasi goes out on a shaky but bold artistic limb, presenting a strangely enticing set of scenes in which Hitchcock imagines, or is visited in dreams by, the serial killer Ed Gein, whose crimes were the basis for Bloch’s novel. Gervasi rightly suggests that Hitchcock is no mere puppet master who seeks to provoke effects in his viewers; he’s converting the world as he sees it, in its practical details and obsessively ugly corners, into his art, and he’s doing so precisely because those are the aspects of life that haunt his imagination. Gervasi had the audacity to consider the filmmaker’s realized visions to be reflections of an inner life that documented behavior hardly conveys. For Hitchcock, bloody evil and the danger of sex are a sort of music that forces itself to the fore unbidden from the depths of his being. A few others—such as his characters and their real-life models—are even more deeply in the grip of such obsessions and in less control of their behavior; millions of others, when confronted with the evidence, find the secret stirrings deep within themselves, too; it’s the difference, of course, between psychopaths and viewers, as well as the connection.

Whether something is a commercial success or not is irrelevant to its artistic merit; but, nonetheless, things succeed for reasons, and Hitchcock’s success arose from his lucid understanding that, in these obsessions, he’s far from alone. Despite critical and even medical outcries at the time of the film’s release (as in a 1960 letter to the Times from a doctor who wished that Hitchcock had self-censored), it was clear that Hitchcock tapped into ugly elements of the unconscious at a time when lots of people were ready to become conscious of them. In Gervasi’s conceit, Hitchcock is both terrified and amused by the play of his own mind (which makes sense—so are viewers). I have no idea whether Hitchcock gave very much thought to Gein, but it doesn’t matter; if it wasn’t Gein that obsessed him, it was surely much that was Gein-like.

There’s a great line from Norman Mailer to the effect that the one kind of character no novelist can conceive is a greater novelist than himself. Gervasi’s visions fall far short of Hitchcock’s phantasmagoria—but they at least suggest that the inner mysteries are there, and that Hitchcock’s art arose from much that the doughy and sybaritic ironist’s observable behavior may not, and need not, put in evidence. Hitchcock’s meticulous attention to practical details served his radical subjectivism; he didn’t hesitate to fill his films with plenty (from inner voices to dream sequences) that assert of characters what can’t be seen from fly-on-the-wall observation. Gervasi—albeit in a narrower range and slighter realization of artistic imagination—does the same, and this already puts him ahead of many.

As an object of adulation, “Vertigo” is also an object of nostalgia, an allegory for the very cinematic manipulations of the grand studio era, of which Hitchcock was a master (albeit a master in thrall). Voting it the best film of all time was also voting for classic Hollywood. “Psycho,” in its dark and sordid extravagance, remains utterly contemporary, in its subject as well as in its production.

P.S. In his biography of Rossini, Stendhal makes clear that, in the early nineteenth century, opera spectators were in the habit of wandering noisily in and out of the theatre while the production was going on. So it was with movies, as I recall from my childhood in the sixties—people went to the movies casually, not hesitating to take a seat in the midst of the movie and then staying through to the beginning of the next show to see what they missed. That now-obsolete habit gives rise to scenes in “Hitchcock” that reveal the skill of Hitchcock the showman—and make clear his deep understanding of the essential experience of cinema. He insisted that “Psycho” be watched from the start, and that no viewers be allowed into the theatre once the lights went down—and theatres screening it had to enforce these rules. There’s documentary footage, as an extra on the DVD release of “Psycho,” showing the effect of these rules: the invention of a ticket-holder’s line, separate from the line at the box-office, where viewers waited to enter the theatre at the start of the show. Next time you wait in one, remember that this, too, was Hitchcock’s doing.

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Justin Chang

By Idrees Kahloon

By Burkhard Bilger

Psycho Review

16 Jun 1960

109 minutes

Back in 1959, no one could believe that Alfred Hitchcock was going to shoot a movie for a mere $800,000 in just 30 days using the crew from his TV series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Moreover, they couldn't understand why he was adapting a pulp novel by Robert Bloch inspired by the gruesome career of the Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein. The reaction must have been much like the bewilderment when the news hit that Gus Van Sant intended to direct a shot-for-shot remake of this very masterpiece.

Everyone must be familiar by now with the events at the Bates Motel. Indeed, folks tend to overlook the biggest and most glorious macguffins of Hitchcock's career - the life and crime of Marion Crane (Leigh). Her illicit hotel rendezous with marriage-shy lover Sam Loomis (John Gavin), the theft of $40,000 and the tortuous drive to the outskirts of Fairvale take up a goodly portion of the picture. Indeed, it seems like business as usual for the Master Of Suspense, until Marion takes a shower...

With Psycho, his blackest, most cynical and most manipulative feature, Hitchcock introduced the American Nightmare strain into the genre. He also revived the fast-fading art of montage with the now legendary shower sequence. To the accompaniment of Bernard Hermann's shrieking strings, Hitch (and "visual consultant" Saul Bass) packed 87 cross-cuts into a frenzied 45 seconds to create the most perfectly timed visual shock since the Odessa Steps massacre in Battleship Potemkin.

Throw in some fluid camera movements, the odd technical flourish, superb performances (notably from Leigh and the remarkable Perkins), the occasional heart-stopping jolt and a trick ending (the rarely seen Norman/Mother superimposition) and you have a timeless classic - which is in as much need of a remake as Citizen Kane.

Buy now on Amazon.

Related Articles

Movies | 08 10 2020

Movies | 23 01 2022

Movies | 05 10 2016

Movies | 20 05 2015

Movies | 16 09 2012

Movies | 02 07 2012

Movies | 21 03 2012

Movies | 14 01 2012

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Young Woman and the Sea Link to Young Woman and the Sea
• Jim Henson Idea Man Link to Jim Henson Idea Man

New TV Tonight

• Ren Faire: Season 1
• Star Wars: The Acolyte: Season 1
• Clipped: Season 1
• Sweet Tooth: Season 3
• Mayor of Kingstown: Season 3
• Criminal Minds: Season 17
• Becoming Karl Lagerfeld: Season 1
• Power Book II: Ghost: Season 4
• Queenie: Season 1
• Erased: WW2's Heroes of Color: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Eric: Season 1
• Evil: Season 4
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Tires: Season 1
• Outer Range: Season 2
• Fallout: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Outer Range: Season 2 Link to Outer Range: Season 2
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Harry Potter (and Fantastic Beasts ) Movies Ranked

All George Miller Movies Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Movie Re-Release Calendar 2024: Your Guide to Movies Back In Theaters

Weekend Box Office: Garfield Outlasts Furiosa to Take No. 1

• Trending on RT
• Vote: 1999 Movie Showdown
• 100 Best Movies on Netflix
• Renewed & Cancelled TV
• Superman: Everything We Know

Psycho Reviews

The impeccable direction and skillfully crafted suspense are magnificently complemented by spine-tingling moments and Anthony Perkins' performance that will be always remembered.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2023

The impeccable craft of Alfred Hitchcock is showcased even more effectively here, in the director’s take on a B-movie, than it is in many of his loftier projects.

Full Review | Sep 28, 2023

What else can be said about Hitch's masterpiece? It's a masterpiece!

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 24, 2023

Certainly Psycho has a problematic queer legacy, but Hitchcock's classic is technically masterful, features iconic sequences and boasts two stellar lead performances in Perkins and Leigh.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 19, 2023

The granddaddy of all slasher films and psycho-thrillers will never have the same impact as it did on first release.... But Hitchcock’s craft is breathtaking.

Full Review | May 6, 2023

A film with a flawed ending (the psychiatrist scene will always annoy me), that can still be enjoyed to this day, thanks to its incredible handling of suspense, memorable characters, iconic scenes, and extraordinary soundtrack. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 11, 2023

Not that [Marion] or we are guilty of the horrors [Norman] is, but this is a movie fundamentally about shame, of which guilt is an inextricable component.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 10, 2023

The impeccable direction and cinematography, the masterful suspense, and the pitch-perfect performance of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates all combine to create not just one of the best horror movies of all time, but one of the best films of all time.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2022

From these lunatic situations Hitchcock has created something persistently compulsive. From his players, and especially from the duel between the brilliant Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam he has drawn frightening, sombre comedy.

Full Review | Aug 10, 2022

Psycho still works on the big screen. Its success lies in its ability to find horror in the mundane... the true horror of Hitchcock’s masterpiece is that (Norman Bates) could be anywhere, just waiting at that next rest stop.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 27, 2022

The score alone is a supporting character. It makes various appearances throughout suspenseful moments in the story most notably the shower scene. Those high-pitched, ear-piercing violin strings will forever be associated with fear and catastrophe.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 10, 2022

Psycho allowed [Hitchcock] and his audience to fulfill their desires of observing a fascinating, macabre world by becoming a fly on the wall without being swatted.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 28, 2021

Hitchcock forged career-best performances out of Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.

Full Review | Jun 10, 2021

Any excuse to watch Hitchcock's film is all right with me. I hope I never find myself in a motel as creepy as the Bates' but I do enjoy returning there on my television.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

For a report on what audiences experienced while watching "Psycho" when it was first released, listen to my own mother. My mom, Geraldine Calleri enjoyed seeing Hitchcock's films. You couldn't have found a more appreciative audience.

Full Review | Nov 11, 2020

It is the ultimate example of how the medium can sway our thought process ... It is the art form operating at its highest capability.

Full Review | Oct 30, 2020

The work speaks for itself, both in its treatment of women and Hitchcock’s ability to imbue his own issues into the films. They are visionary in their meticulous and specific touches, yet they entertain and mesmerize.

Full Review | Sep 11, 2020

A supremely thrilling murder mystery that boasts a climax unlike any other.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 27, 2020

Hitchcock's black & white classic is a masterclass in directing, tone and acting performances. Definitely ahead of its time. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 21, 2020

Psycho is that rarest of beasts - it's both art and entertainment. It's also Hitchcock's best film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 14, 2020

Psycho (1960) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Film review, film synopsis, similar films.

• Bigger Than Life (1956)
• Paranoiac (1963)
• The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
• Corridors of Blood (1958)
• The Exorcist (1973)

Film Credits

Other things to look at.

• Terms of use

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Join HS Insider

About                   FAQs                       Join

Protagonist Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), right, speaks to Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in a still shot from the 1960 film "Psycho." (Image courtesy of Shamley Productions / Paramount Pictures)

Arts and Entertainment

Review: a literary analysis of alfred hitchcock’s ‘psycho’.

“Psycho ,” the 1960 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was considered to be both a classic and first modern horror film opening the viewers of cinema to the “slasher” genre.

The “slasher” or “psycho” is Norman Bates, and he takes on a complex role in the film, seen in the duality between him and Marion — the initial protagonist who he murdered.

Hitchcock skillfully portrays this idea in solo scenes as Marion driving to Bates Motel and the final scene as Norman sits in the police station, not as separate ideas, but rather a call and response to Marion’s pursuit for respectability.

Although their duality might be obscured by having opposing roles in the plot, Hitchcock relies on film techniques and symbolism to portray the doubling of Marion and Norman Bates to voice his opinion against a repressive society. This repression in the ’60s was a historically relevant factor in the acceptance of identity and is still relevant today in a contemporary context. 

The film initially follows Marion and her attempt to escape a repressed society to have a respectable relationship until she is killed by Norman, in which the protagonist becomes Norman. Hitchcock portrays these two characters alone to emphasize their exclusiveness and in their respective ways, estrangement from society.

As Marion escapes from the city, supposedly representing the society she runs away from, she ends up at the Bates Motel. Her journey to Bates Motel symbolizes the traversing from the public world into the private and from the restrictive world into the free one. As the conditions become stormy when she drives, the visual effect of the sign appearing out of the storm seems positive, a lifeline thrown to Marion in her distress, but the motel is only an illusion of freedom and not an escape.

The viewer continues to find out that Bates Motel is another place of repression, in which Norman is driven psychopathic because of his repressive mother. Marion gets killed by Norman, a murderer because he is repressed. Norman’s mother represents repressive authority as she was abusive and controlling of Norman during his childhood, so Bates Motel symbolically represents the society that Marion is running from.

Hitchcock first shows that Marion is unable to escape repression because she is killed, and similarly, Norman is unable to escape his mother’s oppressive control in her murder because she still lives in his mind as he is engulfed with this obsession with her.

Hitchcock is addressing the overlying societal pressures in Marion’s previous life through the duality between the characters. The house watches over what Marion initially sees as shelter (Bates Motel), and it symbolizes a smaller version of the repressive society.

In a pessimistic view, Hitchcock implies that there is no escape from society because as Marion runs away, she only finds Bates Motel and more repression.  The two characters are trying to escape from a repressive society to freedom — for Marion, respectability and for Norman, individuality — but ended in tragedy.

Hitchcock’s film hinges on a larger societal idea that people should be free from a repressive society but not to the extent where they become a danger to themselves or others. He addresses greater contemporary issues with repression seen in Norman revolving around unhealthy obsessions and desires that come from a lack of free will.

Although the film is from the ’60s, it addresses a timeless dilemma with inequality and the oppression that comes with it through the duality of these two characters.

Comic: Cold etiquette

by Hannah P. | Arts and Entertainment

When you catch a cold, it's hard to think about anything except how miserable you feel. However, Mel and Lily show us that it's not just our health that's at stake when we get sick. Although we aren't always aware of them, there are, undoubtedly, important things...

Column: Second Language Struggles

by Karina Yue | Education , Featured , Schools

I took four years of Mandarin at school, but I can barely speak or understand it. Ironic remarks similar to these are, unfortunately, a common occurrence made by second language learners across learning platforms like Quora and Reddit. While we might jump to...

Opinion: Women changing the game

by jessysiegmann | News , Opinion , Schools , Sports

Interest in Women's Basketball has risen greatly in the year 2024. But why is that? Ratings in the past for women's basketball have been low. The WNBA only has 12 franchises, with Toronto Golden State expansion coming soon. As the Women's NCAA tournament wrapped up,...

Discover more from HS Insider

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

Every 'Psycho' Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho is a landmark, for cinema in general, not just horror or slasher cinema. The oppresively tense 1960 thriller set largely at the mysterious, murderous Bates Motel was made on a modest budget, skirted now-defunct censorship codes, and it remains the most profitable black-and-white film of all time. The whole thing was a gamble that paid off; it inevitably led to a franchise. The original film's impact on pop culture is untouchable, but it's certainly worth noting the classic film jump-started an overall underrated and oft-overlooked horror film series.

The following is a ranking all four movies — Psycho , Psycho II , Psycho III , and Psycho IV: The Beginning , plus the 1987 Bates Motel TV special and the 1998 Gus Van Sant remake, from worst to best. This list does not include the well-received Bates Motel drama series starring Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore .

6 'Bates Motel (1987)

Directed by richard rothstein.

There have been two efforts to get spinoff of the Psycho franchise on TV screens. The first attempt, 1987's Bates Motel , was intended to be the pilot of a TV series which ultimately ended up as a made-for-TV movie. Bud Cort ( Harold and Maude ) stars as Alex West, a young man who grew up in the same asylum as Norman Bates after Alex killed his father. Norman takes Alex under his wing during their stay. After his death, Norman leaves Bates Motel to Alex in his will. Alex gets help re-opening Bates Motel with help from teenage runaway Willie ( Lori Petty ). The rest of the special sees Alex attempting to get the motel up and running amidst rumors of the ghost of Norma Bates haunting the hotel and one Bates Motel guest seeing the ghost of her younger self gifting her with an important lesson.

Unfortunately, this 90-minute special is connected to the Psycho canon in name only , with the story so muddled and overwrought it feels like a dare to try and get through it. It's also pretty sweaty and problematic in the way it paints Alex and Norman's dynamic. As you might have guessed, the 1987 Bates Motel TV movie is very much a "for diehard fans only" kind of viewing experience.

Bates Motel (1987)

A horror drama featuring Alex West, a former mental institution patient who inherits the Bates Motel from Norman Bates. Eager to make a fresh start, Alex sets out to revive the rundown property. However, he quickly realizes that the motel is still plagued by the dark and eerie history left behind by its former owner. As Alex deals with mysterious and frightening incidents, he is forced to uncover the secrets of the past and confront the lingering influence of Norman Bates on the motel.

Buy on Amazon

5 'Psycho IV: The Beginning'

Directed by mick garris.

Psycho IV is a 1990 TV movie which sees Anthony Perkins reprise his role as Norman Bates for the fourth and final time (he would pass away two years after this movie was released). Over the course of an hour and half, we watch as Norman attempts to unpack all of his emotional and psychological baggage via a late-night call into a radio show hosted by Fran Ambrose ( CCH Pounder ). There are flashbacks to Norman's childhood and teenage years, with the subtext of these flashbacks getting uncomfortably Oedipal as young Norman ( Henry Thomas ) tries to please his mother, Norma ( Olivia Hussey ). We also discover Norman has married and is trying to do away with his demons for good, which, sure. Why not?

To have Psycho IV close out the end of what is actually a very fun horror franchise is simply very disappointing. This TV movie only seems interested in pathologizing Norman's behavior and it's equal parts sordid and boring. Thomas gives a solid supporting turn as a teenage Norman Bates grappling with his unsettling feelings for his mother and budding penchant for stabbing young women, so I guess that's something. But, ultimately, Psycho IV is neither well-done enough or confident enough in its execution to be anything more than just a whimper of a franchise finale. Hussey's strong and committed performance stands out from an otherwise forgettable, dull feature.

Psycho IV: The Beginning

A horror thriller that explores the early life of Norman Bates and his tumultuous bond with his mother, Norma. The plot unfolds as Norman, now older, participates in a radio show, sharing the dark and disturbing details of his upbringing. Through his recollections, the film traces the path of his psychological breakdown, highlighting the significant moments that pushed him towards murder and insanity. The story oscillates between flashbacks of Norman's youth and his present-day reflections, providing a comprehensive look at the origins of his notorious persona.

4 'Psycho' (1998)

Directed by gus van sant.

Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot 1998 Psycho is a fascinatingly flawed bit of filmmaking. This most recent Psycho movie is shot in color, with Anne Heche and Vince Vaughn stepping into the roles made famous by Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins, and Julianne Moore , Viggo Mortensen , William H. Macy , and Philip Baker Hall rounding out the main cast. Van Sant's remake uses most of Joseph Stefano 's original script and Danny Elfman is on music duty, lightly sprucing up Bernard Herrmann 's original score.

As an acting exercise, Psycho '98 is fun to watch. The cast put their own spin on their readings of the characters, with more room for fun to seemingly help keep things fresh. However, keeping most of Stefano's script intact means some lines just don't land or feel outright dated. World-class actors do what they can with the recycled material, but nothing could possibly change the fundamental flaw with this movie: it's aggressively pointless.

Psycho (1998)

A psychological horror film retelling the story of Marion Crane, who steals a significant amount of money and seeks refuge at the remote Bates Motel. The motel is run by the enigmatic Norman Bates, whose peculiar behavior hints at deeper, more sinister secrets. As Marion becomes entangled in the unsettling environment of the motel, she faces terrifying revelations that lead to a shocking conclusion. This remake stays true to the original's plot while updating the setting and style for a modern audience.

3 'Psycho III'

Directed by anthony perkins.

When it comes to '80s horror movies and late franchise installments, Psycho III is a hell of an entry. Perkins returns this time as both director and star. Additionally, Diana Scarwid ( Mommie Dearest ), Jeff Fahey ( Lost ), and Robert Maxwell ( Popeye ) round out the supporting cast. With a script from Charles Edward Pogue ( The Fly , DragonHeart ) in hand and lots of ominous synth music to go around, Psycho III is the peak of everything the Psycho franchise wants to be: an over-the-top, goofy, cheeky, bawdy, sweaty movie that will keep you hooked.

Psycho III is a movie which isn't so much plot-forward as it is pulp-forward. The general gist is: Norman has fully returned to his dual personality of Norman and Norma Bates and seems content in this new groove. He's the kind of guy who will taxidermy birds at the kitchen table and use the same spoon to put sawdust into a carcass and put peanut butter on crackers. So, super chill basically. Norman's very cool and normal home life gets shaken up with the arrival of wannabe rocker Duane Duke (Fahey), who Norman hires to help around the hotel, and Maureen Coyle (Scarwid), a runaway nun contemplating suicide who is saved by and ends up falling for Norman. Unlike Psycho II , a sequel which is bit more serious in tone and intention, Psycho III is just plain fun.

A chilling sequel that follows Norman Bates as he returns to manage the Bates Motel after being released from a psychiatric facility. Struggling to suppress his murderous urges, Norman's life is further complicated by the arrival of Maureen Coyle, a troubled young woman, and a persistent reporter looking into the motel's dark past. As Norman's sanity unravels, the motel once again becomes a site of terror, with a new wave of gruesome murders shaking the eerie establishment.

2 'Psycho II'

Directed by richard franklin.

There is so much to love about Psycho II . It is a rare sequel which manages to both expand on the lore at the heart of the canon while also going deeper into it. Following Hitchcock's passing in 1980, Universal Pictures revived the Psycho franchiser with this movie. This decision saw Perkins return to the role of Norman Bates after a 22-year hiatus along with original cast member Vera Miles . Joining Perkins and Miles was a great supporting cast, which included Meg Tilly , Robert Loggia , and Dennis Franz .

Psycho II follows Norman after he is cleared to return home to the Bates Motel after 22 years in an institution after pleading insanity in the Marion Crane murder. Norman works to put the pieces of his life back together while some locals seem unwilling to let his past go. Norman befriends a young woman, Mary (Tilly), at his job and soon takes her under his wing. Things take a turn as bodies begin popping up all around the Bates property and Norman's grip on reality begins to slip. Psycho II has a keen interest in examining Norman without turning him into some lab rat, as later sequels seem keen to do. Instead, this is a movie both sympathetic to Norman's headspace, interested in unpacking the layers of a lifetime of trauma, guilt, and fear baked into Norman's psyche. There is a redemptive arc to this story through Norman's relationship with Mary which also helps lends some keen pathos to the piece. This is an underrated, worthy sequel.

After twenty-two years of psychiatric care, Norman Bates attempts to return to a life of solitude, but the specters of his crimes - and his mother - continue to haunt him.

1 'Psycho' (1960)

Directed by alfred hitchcock.

What else can be said about Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho at this point? The American Film Institute named it the most suspenseful film ever made. Variety recently named it the best movie in the history of all cinema . It's nearly 65 years old, and it holds up as hair-raising, gripping in the extreme when watched today. Its twists and turns are about as iconic as the shower scene, the Gothic house and staircase, the knife, the screeching Bernard Hermann score. And yet, somehow Psycho always works like gangbusters. It's tense. It's frightening.

There's a coda near the end of Psycho that sticks out like a sore thumb, the over-explanation of Norman Bates, his motives and his methods. Literally nobody needed that, and frankly it throws off the pacing a bit. But a few fleeting moments of hand-holding can't do anything to tarnish the whole enterprise, which just might be the greatest feat of film direction ever.

*Availability in US

Not available

A Phoenix secretary embezzles $40,000 from her employer's client, goes on the run and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.

NEXT: Best Horror Screenplays of All Time, Ranked

• Vince Vaughn

Prime Video movie of the day: Janet Leigh gives an iconic performance in the Oscar-nominated horror Psycho

Check into Bates Motel tonight if you’re feeling brave enough

Every day, we cut through the bottomless list of streaming options and recommend something to watch. See all our our  Prime Video movie of the day  choices.

Psycho is considered to be Alfred Hitchcock’s most influential (and controversial) work and it’s now streaming on Prime Video .

It is a horror movie that’s so well-known, you don’t even have to have seen it to recognise the famous shower scene where Janet Leigh is stabbed to death while a chilling violin screech plays in the background. The scene has inspired many other works, including parodies in shows like The Simpsons , which means even the most squeamish among us is likely familiar with it. But Psycho is so much more than this iconic scene. 

It’s a must-watch for all horror fans, given its influence on the genre at the time. Even 64 years after its theatrical release, there’s still plenty of love for it. Whether this is your first watch or you’ve seen it many times before, it’s always worth revisiting. If not for Janet Leigh, then for Anthony Perkins’ truly chilling Norman Bates, who is a horror icon in his own right.

• Watch Psycho on Prime Video

Psycho is arguably the birth of modern horror

Horror is so commonplace nowadays that it’s become very easy to find a creepy, bloodsoaked or chilling story to watch, but Psycho was released at a time when such topics were considered taboo. As a result of this, it was considered controversial when it was first released, and despite being nominated for four academy awards – which was a big achievement for a horror flick back then – it did receive a lot of criticism from reviewers.

Critics in 1960 from publications such as The New York Times , Newsweek and Esquire called Psycho "a blot on an honorable career", "plainly a gimmick movie", and "merely one of those television shows padded out to two hours", so there was a lot of backlash.

But critics have finally changed their tone and are recognizing Hitchcock’s contributions to the now hugely profitable horror genre. “Look into Janet Leigh's eye after the shower scene and be amazed how fresh this black-and-white ghoulish chic seems in the saccharine surroundings of modern cinema,” The Times wrote in a five-star review posted in 2010.

Elsewhere, legendary critic Roger Ebert said: “What makes Psycho immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears.”

Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox

Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.

Though people will have conflicting opinions on the quality of Hitchcock’s Psycho , its influence cannot be ignored. Just look at the TV adaptation Bates Motel, which was one of five Hollywood classics new to the streamer in May , and the numerous horrors the shower scene alone has inspired, and it’s hard to argue against it.

You might also like

• Prime Video movie of the day: The Ring is still an unmatched piece of visual horror
• Netflix movie of the day: Gerald's Game reveals the perils of sex-based games in spooky adaptation of 1992 Stephen King novel
• Netflix movie of the day: Joaquin Phoenix is creepy and compelling in the controversy-laced Joker

Want a TV upgrade? Our top 3 picks for all budgets

The best-value elite TV on the planet is the S90C OLED TV: its pictures are stunning, it's got every key gaming feature, it's got all the streaming smarts, its sound is good, and it looks gorgeous. Here's our full Samsung S90C review .

Premium pictures for a much lower price tag. The Hisense U8K is bright enough to be ideal for sport, has great contrast for movies, as future-proofed for gaming, and is unbeatable value. Read our full Hisense U8K review .

Get this on one of its regular sales and its a steal. Excellent detail comes with rich, accurate colors, and an easy-to-use smart platform. It's even good for gaming. See our full Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED review .

Lucy is a long-time movie and television lover who is an approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes. She has written several reviews in her time, starting with a small self-ran blog called Lucy Goes to Hollywood before moving onto bigger websites such as What's on TV and What to Watch, with TechRadar being her most recent venture. Her interests primarily lie within horror and thriller, loving nothing more than a chilling story that keeps her thinking moments after the credits have rolled. Many of these creepy tales can be found on the streaming services she covers regularly.

When she’s not scaring herself half to death with the various shows and movies she watches, she likes to unwind by playing video games on Easy Mode and has no shame in admitting she’s terrible at them. She also quotes The Simpsons religiously and has a Blinky the Fish tattoo, solidifying her position as a complete nerd. 

Prime Video movie of the day: Julia Roberts is the hero we need even today in Erin Brockovich

Prime Video movie of the day: Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken are astonishing in The Deer Hunter

Asus ProArt PX13 ultra-portable laptop crams Geforce RTX 4070 GPU in tiny form factor — 13.3-inch powerhouse comes with AMD's flagship CPU and a 360-degree display

Most Popular

• 2 How to prepare for Windows 10 End of Life
• 3 5 phones with the very best screens
• 4 I tried CrossFit champ Mat Fraser’s go-to workout and it hit my whole body in just 20 minutes
• 5 Prime Video movie of the day: Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Christopher Walken are astonishing in The Deer Hunter
• 2 The Northern Lights could return this week – 5 ways to plan your photo shoot
• 3 Marvel’s first immersive story for the Apple Vision Pro is the most fun I’ve had on the device
• 4 3 Body Problem showrunners clear up Netflix’s confusing season 2 and 3 renewal announcement
• 5 Santander hit by massive hack — "all staff" and 30 million customers affected

Find Family Movies, Movie Ratings and Movie Reviews

Psycho Parent Guide

Based on a novel inspired by the crimes of a Wisconsin murder, Psycho is considered one of the greatest thrillers ever made (according to the American Film Institute). Shot in 1960, Hitchcock's masterpiece and the famous shower scene is still capable of producing chills in audiences today.

Release date September 7, 1960

Run Time: 109 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kerry bennett.

Alfred Hitchcock may have done more to discourage personal hygiene practices than any other director. In the most famous shower scene ever shot, Hitchcock pulls back the curtain and startles his audience as much with what he leaves out as what he portrays. Audiences get a knife-wielding psycho, terrified screams and streams of blood running down the drain, but never any punctured flesh or overtly gruesome images. Hitchcock leaves it up to viewers to fill in the blanks and the result is shockingly effective.

Psycho begins in a seedy hotel room where an unmarried couple redresses after a lunch hour tryst. Sam Loomis (John Gavin), divorced and paying almost every penny he earns in alimony to his former wife, drives from California to Phoenix as often as he can for these romantic encounters. Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who yearns for something more respectable, works in an office and makes up stories to explain her frequent tardiness. But she doesn’t see much of a future for the relationship unless Sam can pay off his debts.

Exhausted from driving, she finally stops along the way for a night’s rest at the out-of-the-way Bates Motel. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), the hotel’s operator, welcomes her to the vacant establishment and even offers his sole guest a plate of sandwiches in his parlor. Surrounded by stuffed birds perched around the room, Marion becomes both intrigued by and wary of the young man who lives with his invalid mother and fills his lonely hours honing his taxidermy skills.

Using heavy shadows, dead fowl and isolation to create a sense of foreboding, Hitchcock establishes the setting for the bloody murder that follows. But he also builds suspense in the script using sparse dialogue, internal conversations, a dark and stormy night and an unsettling sense that something is amiss with Norman and his mother.

Based on a novel inspired by the crimes of a Wisconsin murder, Psycho received mixed reviews at its release but now ranks as one of the greatest thrillers ever made according to the American Film Institute. And while today’s audiences may mistake the 1960’s black and white storyline as outdated, Hitchcock’s masterpiece still produces chills and jump scenes that make it unsuitable for children and even many teens. Unlike the grisly depictions popular in horror films of today, this script relies on suspense rather than gore, though Hitchcock makes full use of the intense shower scene with depictions of blood running down the drain and splattered around the room. Considered by many to be one of the director’s best movies, this psychological thriller promises to be a spine-tingling experience even for viewers from any generation.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Psycho rating & content info.

Why is Psycho rated R? Psycho is rated R by the MPAA

Violence: A characters steals a large amount of money. Arguments between a son and his mother are overheard several times. A woman is slashed with a knife while showering, although the audience never sees the knife make contact with the body. Blood runs down the drain and is later seen splattered in the shower and around the bathroom. A man washes blood from his hands after cleaning up the bathroom. Another character is stabbed in the face (blood shown), falls down the stairs and is repeatedly stabbed after collapsing on the floor. Several murders involving stabbing or poisoning are discussed. A character badgers another with questions and causes him to become angry. A man is hit over the head with an object. Characters, one holding a knife, struggle with one another. Several corpses are shown.

Sexual Content: A man flirts with a secretary. A woman is shown in her bra on several occasions. A couple redresses after an implied sexual encounter. They kiss and cuddle on the bed and discuss the future of their affair, dirty love letters and the next opportunity to be together. Through a peephole, a man watches a woman undress. Bare shoulders and stomach are seen in a shower scene along with very brief backside and partial breast nudity. A character is incorrectly referred to as a transvestite because there are no sexual desires involved in the cross-dressing.

Language: The script contains a term of Deity and adult oriented dialogue about murders, suicide and illicit sexual affairs.

Alcohol / Drug Use: A character makes reference to a bottle in man’s work desk and later talks about going out for drinks. A character pulls out a package of cigarettes and smokes one.

Page last updated July 17, 2017

Psycho Parents' Guide

How does Hitchcock create a sense of unease at the hotel? What other film effects does he use to create suspense in the story? How does Marion’s decision to steal the money add to her level of apprehension about others?

According to IMDB.com, actress Janet Leigh was so affected by the shower scene after seeing it on film that to the end of her life, she always took a bath. A man also wrote to Hitchcock saying that his daughter refused to shower after seeing Psycho . What long-term impacts can movie scenes have on viewers?

Alfred Hitchcock makes his signature appearance in this movie. Did you find him?

The most recent home video release of Psycho movie is October 8, 2010. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Psycho; 50th Anniversary Edition

Release Date: 19 October 2010

Psycho release to home video (DVD and Blu-ray) in a 50th Anniversary Edition. Bonus extras include:

- The Making of Psycho

- Psycho Sound

- In The Master’s Shadow: Hitchcock’s Legacy

- Hitchcock / Truffaut Interview Excerpts

- Newsreel Footage: The Release of Psycho

- The Shower Scene: With and Without Music

- The Shower Scene: Storyboards by Saul Bass

- The Psycho Archives

- Lobby Cards

- Behind-the-Scenes Photographs

- Production Photographs

- Theatrical Trailer

- Re-release Trailers

- My Scenes

- Feature Commentary with Stephen Rebello (author of “Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho”)

- BD Live (Blu-ray only)

Related home video titles:

The movie Hitchcock is a biopic about the period of the director’s life in which he makes the movie Psycho . Actress Janet Leigh also starred in the 1962 movie The Manchurian Candidate . Other Hitchcock movies dealing with murder include Dial M for Murder , Rear Window and The 39 Steps .

The Best Comedy Anime Of All Time

• Anime is a great place to look for hilarious comedies. Some of the funniest animated shows come from Japan.
• There are even a variety of sub-genres to choose from, including rom-coms and parodies.

Sometimes, you just need a good laugh. If you're looking for something funny to watch, anime shows are a great way to start. While Japanese animation is mainly known for its epic fight scenes, thrilling story arcs, and powerful heroes, it also provides plenty of comedy. In fact, many of the funniest cartoons are anime.

The Best Anime Of All Time

These are the best Anime of all time for your viewing pleasure!

Everyone has a unique sense of humor, and thankfully, there are many sub-genres of comedy anime that appeal to different tastes. Whether you want a wholesome rom-com, a hilarious fantasy series, or some relatable workplace humor, there's bound to be an anime to give you a few belly laughs.

Assassination Classroom

An action comedy about a homicidal teacher.

Class 3-E isn't your typical middle school setting. The teacher is a nearly indestructible octopus bent on blowing up the world, and the students are assassins hired to terminate him. With everyone's fate in their hands, Nagisa and his classmates must find a way to outsmart their evil professor.

Assassination Classroom provides a nice blend of action-packed fight scenes and goofy high school antics. Much of the humor comes from the teacher, Koro-Sensei, whose charismatic and silly personality will keep you laughing from start to finish. Overall, it works as a hilarious comedy and a stellar action anime .

This is my all-time favorite anime. I especially love the complicated yet wholesome relationship between Koro-Sensei and his students.

The Devil Is A Part-Timer

Even satan needs a day job.

Satan has conquered worlds, slayed countless heroes, and commanded the most feared army in existence. Now, he faces his greatest challenge yet: flipping burgers. When the Devil gets kicked out of Hell, he must work at a fast-food restaurant to pay the bills.

The Devil is a Part-Timer seamlessly blends silly workplace humor with fantasy elements to create a cozy and lighthearted anime . Watching Satan deal with awkward office romance and mundane human tasks always evokes a chuckle. Check it out if you want something cute with hilarious characters.

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

A fast-paced supernatural high school comedy.

Having unlimited superpowers isn't as fun as it seems. High schooler Kusuo Saiki has it all: teleportation, telepathy, etc. However, he just wants a normal life. Unfortunately for him, he goes to the most chaotic school in the world and often must use his abilities without getting caught.

10 Best Mystery Anime

Can you solve these mysteries?

Kusuo's deadpan personality makes him an excellent foil for the numerous quirky characters and ridiculous scenarios he encounters. Fast-paced and brimming with silly, over-the-top humor, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. keeps you laughing with rapid-fire jokes and a cartoonish ensemble.

KonoSuba - God's Blessing On This Wonderful World

An isekai anime with a hilarious twist.

Video game enthusiast Kazuma Satou finally got his dream: to be transported to a real-life RPG world. There's just one problem - his party is a mess. His healer is a pessimistic goddess, his mage passes out after casting a spell, and his strongest warrior can't hit an enemy to save her life.

Somehow, this team of unlikely heroes must keep it together long enough to slay the almighty Devil King. The comical character dynamics and video game references make this the funniest Isekai anime .

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

A parody of harem anime.

Most people have only one soulmate, but due to a mistake in the God of Love's paperwork, high schooler Rentaro has 100. After years of rejection, the self-proclaimed "Death Star of Pubescent Boys" now has dozens of girls who want to date him. The catch? Whoever he doesn't pick is destined to die of loneliness.

As a parody of harem anime, the show pokes fun at the genre's tropes while delivering an endearing protagonist who scrambles to save his potential soulmates from certain doom. Self-aware, charming, and full of fourth-wall-breaking humor, this series is perfect if you like romance anime .

An Adorable Yet Obscene Workplace Comedy

If you like watching cute chibi animals use swear words and scream death metal, Aggretsuko is right up your alley. Retsuko the red panda is stuck with a soul-sucking office job, a misogynistic boss, and an overbearing mother. How does she cope? By yelling her heart out to her favorite screamo songs.

10 Best Horror Anime

From spirits to stalkers, these anime will keep you on edge.

Retsuko's struggle to find meaning in life is simultaneously relatable, touching, and funny. The death metal songs are hilariously vulgar and embody everything people wish they could say to their boss or rude family member. That said, this anime is definitely for adults only .

Mob Psycho 100

The funniest supernatural anime.

From the same creator as One-Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 delivers the same over-the-top humor with a supernatural twist. The titular Mob is a psychic middle schooler struggling to control his overwhelming powers. To make matters worse, he studies under a con artist named Arataka Reigen, who claims to be the world's best ghost hunter.

The two travel across Japan, encountering many goofy spirits as Arataka desperately tries to cover up his blatant incompetence. Everything is made even funnier by the show's ridiculously silly animation. If you're a fan of One-Punch Man, give this show a try.

Spy X Family

A hilarious slice-of-life anime.

The Forgers are a bit strange. The husband is a spy, the wife is a feared assassin, and their adopted daughter is a telepath. Each has an ulterior motive for joining the family and must hide their true intentions from the others.

Despite its suspenseful premise, Spy X Family is an adorable slice-of-life anime that follows the shenanigans of hiding a double life from your family. Loid, Yor, and Anya have a delightfully bizarre yet wholesome dynamic, and the obstacles from their missions or daily lives never fail to evoke some good laughs.

10 Longest-Running Anime Series Of All Time

These anime series have been running for years and years.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

How well we remember Norman Bates. Tens of thousands of movie characters have come and gone since 1960, when he made his first appearance in " Psycho " (1960), and yet he still remains so vivid in the memory, such a sharp image among all the others that have gone out of focus.

Most movies are disposable. "Psycho" supplied us with the furnishings for nightmares. "Dear Mr. Hitchcock," a mother wrote the master, "after seeing your movie my daughter is afraid to take a shower. What should I do?" Send her to the dry cleaners, Hitch advised her.

In "Psycho III," there is one startling shot that completely understands Norman Bates. Up in the old gothic horror house on the hill, he has found a note from his mother, asking him to meet her in Cabin Number 12. We know that although his mother may have frequent conversations with him, she is in no condition to write him a note.

Norman knows that, too. He stuffed her himself. As he walks down the steps and along the front of the Bates Motel toward his rendezvous, the camera tracks along with him, one unbroken shot, and his face is a twitching mask of fear.

The face belongs to Anthony Perkins , who is better than any other actor at reflecting the demons within. Although his facial expressions in the shot are not subtle, he isn't overacting; he projects such turmoil that we almost sympathize with him. And that is the real secret of Norman Bates, and one of the reasons that "Psycho III" works as a movie: Norman is not a mad-dog killer, a wholesale slasher like the amoral villains of the Dead Teenager Movies. He is at war with himself.

He is divided. He, Norman Bates, wants to do the right thing, to be pleasant and quiet and pass without notice. But also inside of him is the voice of his mother, fiercely urging him to kill.

At the beginning of "Psycho III," only a short time has passed since the end of " Psycho II ." In a nearby convent, a young novice ( Diana Scarwid ) blames herself when an older nun falls to her death. She runs out into the night, gets a ride with a sinister motorist ( Jeff Fahey ), and ends up at the Bates Motel. Fahey arrives there, too, and is hired as a night clerk. Other people also turn up: an investigative reporter who wants to do a story on Norman; a local woman who gets drunk and is picked up by Fahey, and finally a crowd of rowdies back for their high school reunion.

By the end of the movie, many of these people will be dead - and because this is a tragedy, not a horror story, some of the dead ones won't deserve it, and others will survive unfairly.

The movie was directed by Perkins, in his filmmaking debut. I was surprised by what a good job he does. Any movie named "Psycho III" is going to be compared to the Hitchcock original, but Perkins isn't an imitator. He has his own agenda. He has lived with Norman Bates all these years, and he has some ideas about him, and although the movie doesn't apologize for Norman, it does pity him. For the first time, I was able to see that the true horror in the "Psycho" movies isn't what Norman does - but the fact that he is compelled to do it.

There are a couple of scenes that remind us directly of Hitchcock, especially the scene where the local sheriff dips into the ice chest on a hot day, and doesn't notice that some of the cubes he's popping into his mouth have blood on them. Perkins permits himself a certain amount of that macabre humor, as when he talks about his hobby ("stuffing things") and when he analyzes his own case for the benefit of the visiting journalist. But the movie also pays its dues as a thriller, and there is one shocking scene that is as arbitrary, unexpected, tragic and unfair as the shower scene in "Psycho." Only one, but then one of those scenes is enough for any movie.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Challengers

Matt zoller seitz.

STAX: Soulsville, USA

Monica Castillo

Black Twitter: A People's History

Rendy jones.

Brian Tallerico

Film credits.

Psycho III (1986)

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates

Diana Scarwid as Maureen

Jeff Fahey as Duane

Roberta Maxwell as Tracy

Hugh Gillin as Sheriff Hunt

Lee Garlington as Myrna

• Carter Burwell

Directed by

• Anthony Perkins

From A Screenplay by

• Charles Edward Pogue

Produced by

• Hilton A. Green
• David Blewitt

Photographed by

• Bruce Surtees

Latest blog posts

Animation Is Slow Motion: Pablo Berger on Robot Dreams

The Unloved, Part 126: Zardoz

Cannes 2024: Ghost Trail, Block Pass

At the Movies, It’s Hard Out There for a Hit Man

‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Review: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Make the Franchise’s Fourth Entry Tastier Than It Has Any Right to Be

The two stars are in top form, and so past being too old for this shit that it almost seems young again.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Review: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Make the Franchise’s Fourth Entry Tastier Than It Has Any Right to Be 3 hours ago
• Would ‘Hit Man’ Be a Hit in Theaters? Netflix Doesn’t Want You to Know 2 days ago
• ‘The Great Lillian Hall’ Review: Jessica Lange Is Grand as a Legendary Stage Actress Confronting Dementia 4 days ago

If there are five ages of man, maybe there are four ages of “Bad Boys.” There’s the early age — the original “Bad Boys” came out in 1995 — of youthful effrontery: zappy, flashy, mouthy, decadent. There’s the age when the heroes start to say, “We’re too old for this shit!” There’s the age when they’re too old to even be saying that.

Related Stories

Scarlett johansson vs. sam altman is the ‘black widow’ sequel we didn’t know we needed, hulu now offers one-month free trial to binge 'the bear,' 'only murders in the building' and more, popular on variety.

The two go through the paces of a conspiracy thriller, centering on corrupt cops and cartels, that plays like an exercise in ultraviolence jacked, at moments, to video-game intensity. But that’s all very standard.

A few scenes later, at Mike’s wedding to Christine (Melanie Liburd), Marcus makes a suitably embarrassing best-man speech and then, on the dance floor, suffers a heart attack. It looks like he’s a goner, signified by a trippy sequence in which he communes with the partners’ late beloved boss, Capt. Howard (Joe Pantoliano), on a stretch of beach that looks like heaven. But Howard says, “It’s not your time.” Marcus recovers, with a new lease on life that tells him to leave his creeping caution behind. He now thinks he’s invincible, and that his job is to heal everyone else’s mystic torment.

That sounds like a cliché (and is), but Lawrence invests Marcus’s born-again personality with a cockeyed sincerity that makes it urgent and uproarious. He’s the perfect foil for Mike, who Smith embodies with an ageless stoic finesse, a hotheaded cool so debonair it’s almost uncanny. These two actors, with nothing matching but their goatees, have a spiky bromantic chemistry. They don’t just ping off one another’s lines — they lock and load each other.

I went into the movie wondering how the Slap would impinge on Smith’s ability to be his airless and jocular Will Smith self, but he acts with supreme confidence and timing. And the film doesn’t sidestep his awkward moment of infamy. It makes direct reference to it. In the climax, Smith gets repeatedly slapped by his partner, who keeps calling him bad boy , and the scene acts as a kind of pop exorcism. It’s “punishing” Smith, making cruel fun of his transgression, and just maybe, in the process, allowing him to crawl out from under the image of it.

The plot is strictly standard issue. A press conference reveals that the late Capt. Howard is being smeared for corruption. Was he in cahoots with the cartels? We know the answer is no. But somebody was, and it’s up to Mike and Marcus to figure out who, even though the film doesn’t keep it a secret. (It’s a military baddie who assassinates people like he was swatting mosquitoes.) Mike and Marcus end up on the run along with Armando (Jacob Scipio), the underworld cold case who was revealed, in the previous film, to be Mike’s son.

“Ride or Die, in its flippant way, is a movie about “family,” and that works because the film’s co-directors, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (returning from “Bad Boys for Life”), are experts at fashioning and executing hair-trigger situations that hinge on the transformation of loyalty into action. There’s a hypnotic shootout aboard a military helicopter, a crowd-pleasing encounter at an NRA encampment, a rollicking finale at a Florida theme park abandoned by everyone but its crocodiles, as well as attitude-drenched cameos from Tiffany Haddish, DJ Khaled, and Michael Bay. Mostly, though, there are Smith and Lawrence, making yesterday’s overcooked street-smart popcorn seem tastier today than it has any right to be.

Reviewed at Regal Union Square, New York, June 3, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 115 MIN.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Releasing release of a Columbia Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Westbrook Studios, 2.0 Entertainment production. Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith, Chad Oman, Doug Belgrad. Executive producers: Chris Bremner, Martin Lawrence, James Lassiter, Jon Mone, Mike Stenson, Barry H. Waldman.
• Crew: Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah. Screenplay: Chris Bremner, Will Beall. Camera: Robrecht Heyvaert. Editors: Asaf Eisenberg, Dan Lebental. Music: Lorne Balfe.
• With: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Tasha Smith, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Eric Dane, Joe Pantoliano, Tiffany Haddish, Ioan Gruffud, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd.

More from Variety

Scarlett johansson says she was ‘shocked’ and ‘angered’ over openai’s use of a voice that was ‘eerily similar to mine’, take-two caps gaming earnings season with huge loss as publishers cement new strategies, openai inks licensing deals to bring vox media, the atlantic content to chatgpt, news corp inks openai licensing deal potentially worth more than $250 million, new bundles point to broadband’s growing power in svod packaging, openai suspends chatgpt voice that sounds like scarlett johansson in ‘her’: ai ‘should not deliberately mimic a celebrity’s distinctive voice’, more from our brands, mandisa, beloved ‘american idol’ alum, cause of death revealed, an oceanfront compound in hawaii once owned by a rothschild hits the market for $32.5 million, ncaa’s billion dollar settlement faces google book deal hurdles, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, clipped premiere recap: did hulu’s basketball drama score grade it, verify it's you, please log in.

Advertisement

Supported by

Critic’s Pick

‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Review: Older, but Never Wiser

In their latest buddy cop movie, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are still speeding through Miami. The franchise has rarely felt so assured, relaxed and knowingly funny.

• Share full article

By Robert Daniels

Two years after Will Smith slapped the comedian Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage, it feels bizarre that he needs a franchise called “Bad Boys” to rekindle his star power. Smith and his co-star, Martin Lawrence, are two producers of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” the stylishly chaotic lark by the directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, suggesting outsize roles as star-auteurs and the importance for this installment to be a hit. In their hands, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” throws everything at the wall, and much of it sticks.

Though the third “Bad Boys” installment was released in early 2020, a few months before the George Floyd murder spurred Black Lives Matter protests, that film could be seen in some ways as apologizing for its Michael Bay past and its “copaganda” roots.

But this is something else — a silly buddy comedy that opens poignantly with the wedding of Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Christine (Melanie Liburd). There, Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) has a heart attack, a near-death experience that soon makes him feel invincible; Lowrey, however, is rendered vulnerable by debilitating panic attacks. It’s clear that these two hypermasculine men, still speeding through Miami in fast, slick cars, are aging.

Their friend Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) has been framed — after his death — in a cartel’s money laundering scheme, by corrupt government officials and the brooding mercenary James McGrath (Eric Dane). Lowrey and Burnett work to clear Captain Howard’s name, and in the process this film somehow becomes a prison-break movie, involving Lowrey’s incarcerated son, Armando (Jacob Scipio), and a revenge subplot involving Howard’s daughter Judy (Rhea Seehorn). Along the way there are nods to fan favorites, a cameo by Tiffany Haddish, and Miami gangsters hunting a wanted Lowrey and Burnett.

The lurid lighting and grandiose filmmaking mirror the extravagant plotting. A frantic shootout in a club is viciously edited. In other major set pieces, the camera, sometimes taking a first-person-shooter perspective, zips, darts and spins past falling bodies toward Smith and Lawrence, who banter playfully.

Their endearing camaraderie lands better than the shallow moments meant to ground Lowrey, whose panic attacks barely figure into his character growth or his relationship to his son. The role of Christine, his kidnapped wife, is severely underwritten. This film’s spectacle is absurd — a climactic raid on an abandoned amusement park features an albino alligator — but its shortcomings are barely noticeable.

Smith and Lawrence also make this adventure a riotous triumph. These stars embody the care and anxieties their characters feel for each other, wielding their chemistry to smooth over abrupt tonal shifts. For example, an all-out firefight looping in a Barry White needle drop is a major highlight. And a run-in with racist good old boys, inspiring a Reba McEntire cover of the film’s theme song, makes for another memorable scene.

This violent franchise has rarely felt so assured, so relaxed and knowingly funny. If “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” means that Smith, post-slap, will remain a bad boy for life, there are worse punishments to endure.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die Rated R for strong violence and sensual, lovemaking music. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Leslye Headland’s new “Star Wars” show, The Acolyte,” is a dream come true, but she knows it carries enormous expectations .

Once relegated to supporting roles, the comedian Michelle Buteau  is a star of the film “Babes” and is moving to a bigger stage, Radio City Music Hall, for her new special.

American audiences used to balk at subtitles. But recent hits like “Shogun” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” show how much that has changed .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.