An absolute classic to end our three month season, Psycho is perhaps Hitchcock’s most famous and influential work.

"★★★★★ – The best horror film of all time" – Guardian.

"Psycho, in its dark and sordid extravagance, remains utterly contemporary" – New Yorker.

An absolute classic to end our three month season, Psycho is perhaps Hitchcock’s most famous and influential work. On the run after embezzling forty thousand dollars from her employer's client, secretary Marion Crane (Leigh) checks into a remote California motel. The proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) seems nice enough, and as for his mother, why, she wouldn't harm a fly…

The master of suspense bolstered his title with this feature, shot in black and white initially as a cost-saving exercise but later becoming a central device to the shock horror throughout the piece. Based on Robert Block’s novel of the same name, which is in turn based on serial killer Ed Gein, the macabre story is expertly manipulated by Hitchcock, as are the audience whom he directs just as much as he directed the actors on screen.

Screening as part of our Alfred Hitchcock Season.