Psycho (1960) - DVD Review

MOVIE
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

One Disc
1.85:1 Aspect Ratio (Letterboxed)
English & French Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish & English Subtitles
Original Theatrical Trailers
Full Length Documentary
Run Time: 109 Minutes
Keep Case

MOVIE
Rated R for violence

Once upon a time, I was a young man in sixth grade visiting the local library. I picked up a book about horror movies and enjoyed it very much as naturally one would. I didn't yet know what damage had been done. And no, I'm not about to wax philosophical about the nature of horror movies and how they may or may not do terrible things to young minds. (For the record, I don't think they do) Instead, the damage that was done I didn't realize until I sat down with my father more than a year later to watch Psycho for the first time. That little book of horror movies ruined one of the most brilliantly executed twist endings in motion picture history. Those touting The Sixth Sense or Fight Club and going on and on about the brilliant twist endings, it's a crying shame that it's nearly impossible some forty years after this film was released to experience the twist that those audiences did back then. I wish I'd experienced it. I can only live vicariously through others, watching those experiencing the thrills for themselves for the first time. But those people are rare. These days, everybody thinks nothing of revealing the ending to Psycho. My little sister found out the ending on the Universal Tour where some careless tour guide made a telling reference to the final moments of the film. Hell, a friend found out the ending while watching another movie with me. In Playing By Heart, Sean Connery blurts it out. How unfair. I got to be in a crowd of people who weren't fully aware of the ending in the shot for shot remake's theatrical release (Read my review of Psycho (1998) here) It was magic, an audible gasp, something I didn't even hear in the big twist of Fight Club.
Psycho, as you may or may not know, begins with a lunchtime tryst between unwed couple Sam Loomis (John Gavin) and Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) where they speak in length about not having the money to marry and be happy. At work, Marion sensing an opportunity, absconds with a large sum of money from her office under the guise of bringing it to the bank. She leaves town immediately, buying a new car, steadily eluding a police officer who finds her suspicious. Unfortunately, fate appears in the form of a quiet little motel beneath a Victorian house on the hill. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) manager of the motel tries to entertain his guest, bringing her food, inviting her to eat with him, at the same time fending off verbal abuse from his crazy mother (Virginia Gregg) living up on the hill. Marion, realizing that she'd trapped herself decides to return the money. She steps into a nice hot shower. She's brutally murdered.
I've engaged in a bit of subterfuge above, meandering around the truth so as not to reveal a key point. I can assure those of you who have seen the movie and have a question about a specific point above, everything I've written is accurate, I've just left out a detail. Psycho is called one of the greatest horror films of all time and it really is more along the lines of Silence of the Lambs. It relies on acting rather than jump scares, though it has one of the best jump scares in history. The cast includes universally excellent performances John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam in addition to stellar performances by Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. The film takes its time and builds its horror gradually before reaching a fever pitch by the end. Though, a gripe I've always had is the man on hand at the end to explain the film to us. We get it. Though, I can understand that audiences of 1960 may not have gotten it. Therefore this can be overlooked. The horror fan in me owes debts of gratitude to Psycho for being the first real slasher film. Knives go in and blood comes down, something America hadn't seen before and would eventually see MORE AND MORE of. (That is until after the 80s slasher boom when the MPAA decided to cut everything down to the second before the stab totally ruining many gore effects) This is the granddaddy, though it does owe a lot to the French film Diabolique.

VIDEO QUALITY
Well, this DVD was released very early on so it's not provided in Anamorphic. However, that being said, the film is so well cleaned that it looks pristine. It's presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The grayscale is phenomenal with incredibly rich, dark blacks and full white whites. Tremendous looking, but an Anamorphic transfer would've been nice.

AUDIO QUALITY
The mono track is thick and deep with voice differentiation good. No audio pops and hisses can be heard so this track is very clean and has some nice bass occasionally. The violins screech and the lows are low, everything is hovering in the middle. The way it should be.

EXTRAS
The best extra, the one I bought this disc for, is the full length Documentary that used to be common on Universal DVDs. The documentary has interviews with Janet Leigh, Pat Hitchcock and Joseph Stefano and is very engaging. They talk about the filmmaking process, about working with Hitchcock and Tony Perkins and how long a process it was to film the shower scene, clearing up some misconceptions about it. Watch the movie first. The documentary also reveals the twist.
There's some newsreel footage about the movie and Hitchcock's wonderful trailer that consists of the man himself walking through the sets of the film pointing out where murders take place and then getting disgusted by it and walking away. It's delightful.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Now that my rant about the twist ending is done, I highly recommend picking this one up. Along with Pecker, The Player and Pleasantville (I was stuck in the P section and ran out of money) these was one of the DVDs I bought that first day I had my player. In fact, after seeing the Psycho documentary at a local pool hall, this was the reason I bought the player in the first place. Before that, I was still one of the nutty Laserdisc holdouts. This is a great disc at a, well, not so great price. But hey, it's still cheaper than the laserdiscs were. Also, for a little added fun, turn on the French audio track, flip on the English subtitles and pretend you're watching a Truffaut film.