Opening

72% World War Z Jun 21
77% Monsters University Jun 21
61% The Bling Ring Jun 21
60% Maniac Jun 21
100% A Hijacking Jun 21
66% Unfinished Song Jun 21
100% The Attack Jun 21
—— The Haunting of Helena Jun 21

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Coming Soon

—— How To Make Money Selling Drugs Jun 26
—— White House Down Jun 28
—— The Heat Jun 28
56% I'm So Excited! Jun 28

Psycho (1960)

tomatometer

97

Average Rating: 9/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 76 | Rotten: 2

Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it.

91

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 1

Infamous for its shower scene, but immortal for its contribution to the horror genre. Because Psycho was filmed with tact, grace, and art, Hitchcock didn't just create modern horror, he validated it.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 200,428

My Rating

Movie Info

In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock was already famous as the screen's master of suspense (and perhaps the best-known film director in the world) when he released Psycho and forever changed the shape and tone of the screen thriller. From its first scene, in which an unmarried couple balances pleasure and guilt in a lunchtime liaison in a cheap hotel (hardly a common moment in a major studio film in 1960), Psycho announced that it was taking the audience to places it had never been before, and on that

R,

Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Classics

Joseph Stefano

Mar 6, 2001

Paramount Pictures

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Cast

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All Critics (78) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (76) | Rotten (2) | DVD (12)

Hitchcock is the most-daring avant-garde film-maker in America today.

October 8, 2012 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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?

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Time Out New York
Time Out New York
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

April 1, 2010 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 7, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comments (92)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

An unusual, good entertainment, indelibly Hitchcock, and on the right kind of boxoffice beam.

October 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

September 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The shower sequence, the shrieking score, Anthony Perkins, that twist ending... Psycho remains a stone-cold classic.

December 8, 2012 Full Review Source: Flix Capacitor
Flix Capacitor

It's not hardly Hitchcock at his most flawless, but not a single film he ever made... is so absolutely flattening as a total experience.

December 1, 2012 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy
Antagony & Ecstasy

Watching Psycho today we are all, like Marion in the shower, vainly trying to recover lost innocence too late.

October 22, 2012 Full Review Source: Little White Lies
Little White Lies

It is incumbent on us to inspect the real horrors of our time, but we don't have to traffic with Hitchcock's giggling obscenities.

October 9, 2012 Full Review Source: The Nation | Comments (4)
The Nation

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho set the standard and post-modern horror has been hobbling to catch up ever since.

October 9, 2012 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

Horror masterpiece definitely isn't for young kids.

January 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (2)
Common Sense Media

...lives up to its reputation as one of the most entertaining and suspenseful horror films of all time...

October 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
Reel Film Reviews

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.

October 27, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Masterful suspense and horror from one of the greats.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: IGN DVD
IGN DVD

It's a darkly amusing, manipulative film that's still compelling in its vision of human desperation.

October 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

Always worth another look, especially on the big screen.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

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.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Times [UK]
Times [UK]

Alfred Hitchcock should be credited with making the first slasher film for the ground-breaking narrative template he created for "Psycho."

April 12, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com
ColeSmithey.com

I'd wager there aren't any films that have been more analyzed than Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

November 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Freak Central
Film Freak Central

...one of the great achievements in the horror genre.

September 16, 2008 Full Review Source: ESplatter
ESplatter

Audience Reviews for Psycho

What can one say about one of America Cinemas great movies. Classic film from the master of suspense. Iconic scenes and acting abound!
March 21, 2007
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

Hitchcock's classic "comedy" featuring the world's most famous mother's boy is one of the most influential films ever made; every serial killer and slasher movie owes something to this, one of the true greats of cinema. Unfortunately, as the character of Norman Bates is SO infamous, this is one of those films I wish I could forget I had ever seen and watch it with fresh eyes, but it is still fascinating to watch the awkwardly shy and fresh-faced Anthony Perkins knowing how the story plays out, especially during the exchange between he and Janet Leigh in the parlour. The only minor flaw is the fact that the first act is stronger than the second inevitably meaning a slight anti-climax, especially since the final scenes include the psychiatrist's speech explaining all which is clearly irrelevant in this day and age when the concept of multiple personalities is common knowledge. This is countered however by the brilliantly creepy final shot of Perkins as "mother", who wouldn't even hurt a fly...One of those films that I still find gripping every time I see it.
November 5, 2006
garyX
xGary Xx

Super Reviewer

    1. Norman Bates: A boy's best friend is his mother.
    – Submitted by Dutch E (3 months ago)
    1. Norman Bates: We all go a little mad sometimes.
    – Submitted by Brendan C (3 months ago)
    1. Norman Bates: A boy's best friend is his mother.
    – Submitted by Alex K (5 months ago)
    1. Norman Bates: I think I must have one of those faces you can't help believing.
    – Submitted by Legend L (7 months ago)
    1. Norman Bates: People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues, and shake their heads and suggest, oh, so very delicately!
    – Submitted by Ursula N (7 months ago)
    1. Norman Bates: We all go a little mad sometimes.
    – Submitted by Ursula N (7 months ago)

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Latest News on Psycho

March 20, 2013:
Why Slasher Cinema Is No Longer Killer
Hollywood.com's Christian Blauvelt explores why slasher movies just aren't scary any more.
November 21, 2012:
Five Favorite Films with Hitchcock Director Sacha Gervasi
Arguably the most famous director in cinema history (and the auteur behind the recently crowned...
March 2, 2012:
Scarlett Johansson Joins The Making of Psycho
She'll play Janet Leigh, of course.

Foreign Titles

  • Psychose (FR)
  • Psicosis (ES)
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