PSYCHO (1960)
About the event
Where would we be without PSYCHO? Sixty years on and Hitchcock’s delicious cod-Freudian nightmare about a platinum-blonde embezzler (Janet Leigh) who neglected to consult a guide before selecting her motel still has much to answer for. It blazed a bloody trail for the much-loved slasher cycle, but it also assured us that a B-movie could be A-grade in quality and innovation. It dared to suggest that your star didn’t need to surface from an ordeal smelling of roses (or, indeed, at all). It combined a knife, a scream, a melon, some chocolate sauce, Bernard Herrmann’s greatest score, and more than 70 edits to push the envelope of screen violence. It lent The Simpsons some of its best gags. It offers perfect case studies of suspense, paranoia, and montage for lazy film studies tutors. And, of course, it was the first movie to show a toilet flushing, so we might also credit it with spawning…
