Horror Movie right there on my TV........

My favourite horror movie is, without a doubt, Psyco. Being the huge Alfred Hitchcock fan that I am, I am afraid no Freddy Krueger’s, Scream’s, or zombie flicks stand a chance. The story line is totally enthralling and a classic edge of your seat tale of intrigue and psychopathy.

From the very beginning Janet Leigh’s beauty and spur of the moment decision to steal $40,000 from her employer attracts intellectual fixation, right up until her demise in the now infamous ‘shower scene’. Yet that is just the beginning of the tale......

Anthony Perkins gives the most compelling and strangely 'empathetic' performance as Norman Bates and for me, not knowing the storyline at all, I was utterly shocked at the twist in the tail, even though being familiar with Hitchcockian films, and generally proficient at seeing the direction a story is taking.....

As with most of Hitchcock’s later films, the script is snappy and direct, the cinematography simple and dramatic – especially in haunting black and white.

It was released in 1960 and grossed 32million at the box office, and has since gone on to be reveired as one of the most classic horror films of all time. Staring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, John Galvin and Vera Miles it was nominated for 4 Oscars, althuogh it did not win, it held its own winning awards at the Golden Globes and the Film Preservation Board.

For little old me, a lover of sentiment, beauty and gentility, the true test of a marvellous horror flick is my ability to view it again. In the case of Psyco, although I have it in my DVD collection, I simply cannot bring myself to watch it again. I saw it first at a Friday the 13th celebration with friends in Ontario Canada away back in 1997, and it is as vivid in my head now as it was that day – hence my hesitation to sit through its chilling narrative again....the highest accolade my judgement can give a horror movie.

As such, it is with a great deal of shivering, October 28th delight that I give my first Alice Jean’s movie review 4.5 Jaffa’s to Psyco, 60 years old this year, and the best horror movie of all time.

Rating: 4.5 Choc Tops