Arguably the last of Hitchcock’s masterworks – some will champion The Birds – Psycho approaches perfection. Although flawed by an unnecessary and overlong summation scene and diminished in impact by the exploitative imitators that followed, Psycho still manages to shock, provoke, and entertain with its mixture of pitch-black comedy and agonizing suspense. The film’s best known for its bold narrative reversal and the dazzlingly edited shower sequence on which it pivots, but even if you know all of its surprises, Psycho holds your interest in a viselike grip with careful foreshadowing (a showerhead glimpsed through a doorway, windshield wipers tracing the same arc as the killer’s knife), brilliant use of the subjective camera (especially during Lila’s terrifying exploration of the Bates’ gothic home), Bernard Herrmann’s screeching-violins score, and fine performances by Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, and, of course, Anthony Perkins as the bizarrely sympathetic Norman.

Movie Book Club | Psycho

The The Novel Neighbor and Hi-Pointe Theatre are delighted to host our Movie Book Club, featuring a special screening of Psycho followed by a 30-minute book discussion.

The Sunday 3:00 PM screening of Psycho is the official Movie Book Club showing.

For the month of May, we’ll be discussing Psycho by Robert Bloch.

Join us for this book club experience at Hi-Pointe Theatre. Books will be available for pickup at The Novel Neighbor.