All Critics (73)
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Top Critics (8)
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Fresh (75)
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Rotten (1)
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DVD (12)
Director Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this one, and the delicate illusion of reality necessary for a creak-and-shriek movie becomes, instead, a spectacle of stomach-churning horror.
An unusual, good entertainment, indelibly Hitchcock, and on the right kind of boxoffice beam.
Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece blends a brutal manipulation of audience identification and an incredibly dense, allusive visual style to create the most morally unsettling film ever made.
All those who still get a chill every time they step into a hotel shower, say aye. That, you see, is the power of Psycho.
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.
[Hitchcock] has very shrewdly interwoven crime, sex and suspense, blended the real and the unreal in fascinating proportions and punctuated his film with several quick, grisly and unnerving surprises.
Horror masterpiece definitely isn't for young kids.
...lives up to its reputation as one of the most entertaining and suspenseful horror films of all time...
Hitchcock's manipulative classic of "pure cinema" does have a heart that pumps human blood, in its sublime parlor scene between Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
Still crazy -- and still crazy-good -- after all these years.
The best that can be said is there are bats in the belfry and a well-preserved corpse in the basement. What else can one do but scream?
Masterful suspense and horror from one of the greats.
It's a darkly amusing, manipulative film that's still compelling in its vision of human desperation.
Always worth another look, especially on the big screen.
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.
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.
This is easily the most shocking film produced by the "Master of Suspense."
Alfred Hitchcock should be credited with making the first slasher film for the ground-breaking narrative template he created for "Psycho."
I'd wager there aren't any films that have been more analyzed than Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
...one of the great achievements in the horror genre.
Time may have dulled the shock, but the craft is as impressive as ever.
The music, the setting, the shower scene, the mother in the cellar... everything about this iconic film has passed into cinema history.
You can bet that everyone who's ever seen it immediately feels their heart start to pound when they're in the shower and hear someone enter the bathroom.
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