Alfred Hitchcock's Horror Masterpiece Will Slice and Dice on a New Streaming Home Actorsvaultpro

Alfred Hitchcock‘s quintessential horror film from 1960 has landed a new streaming home, and modern horror audiences will get one more chance to see the film that’s partly responsible for laying the foundation of slasher movies. On October 1, Psycho will be added to the horror-focused streamer Shudder, as part of their update for the upcoming spooky season. Trust us when we say no other film is more perfect for Halloween.

Psycho follows Marion Crane, a secretary in a real estate business who decides to steal a lot of cash and runs away with her lover. Marion grabs the cash and leaves the city, but when a thunderstorm makes it impossible for her to keep on driving, she’s forced to make a stop at a rundown motel on the road. The sign reads Bates Motel, and there are rooms available.

At first, it seems like an ideal stay, with hotel manager Norman being kind enough to make Marion dinner. However, when Marion decides to shower before going to sleep, she finds out the truth about the place. Per the Rotten Tomatoes synopsis:

Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.

Based on the Robert Bloch novel of the same name, the genre-defining movie was not easy to make. Hitchcock fought Paramount Pictures’ executives who were not entirely in tune with his idea from the beginning. There were many obstacles, with Hitchcock ultimately lowering the budget, and hiring his crew from the TV show Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It was the director’s last movie with Paramount, and Hitchcock made the jump to Universal Pictures’ headquarters afterward.

Eventually, Psycho was released. But not without some conditions. Hitchcock was able to convince theaters that no audience member could enter the show after the film started. Joining Marion during her journey was essential to the film landing its unforgettable blow. We won’t spoil this for you, but be aware that the shower scene in Psycho (only made better by Bernard Herrmann’s extraordinary musical score), is undeniably one of cinema’s best plot twists and the most important movie sequence ever shot.

Is ‘Psycho’s Alfred Hitchcock’s Best Movie?

Anthony Perkins As Norman Bates In Psycho (1960)

Paramount Pictures

Trying to select which one is Hitchcock’s best feature film is extremely difficult. Each of them feels like a singular contribution to the foundations of genre cinema, and with each of them, the director proved a different skill. Rope had the experimental element of the continuous shot, Vertigo was an astonishing audiovisual journey through a broken mind. The Birds saw Hitchcock touching a nerve that not many films had dared to in such elegant fashion.

Nevertheless, Psycho was transcendental and became a touchstone in popular culture and the horror genre. Suddenly, there was an elaborate method to provide scares, and an auteur had a say in the entertainment aspect of horror. Psycho is a great movie, that’s for sure (well, except for the divisive ending). A thrilling and disturbing approach to serial killer tropes that would eventually become very popular in Hollywood. But it’s much more than a good story put on the screen. It shows a talented storyteller trying to fulfill his vision of wanting to scare the pants off the viewers. This is Hitchcock at his most wicked. But also, at his best.