Edgar Wright calls Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Psycho’ a “work of art”
Although cinema dilettantes might coalesce around his name, no one, not even the hippest of movie lovers, would deny that Alfred Hitchcock is one of the great auteurs. The London native didn’t earn the nickname of ‘The Master of Suspense’ on a whim, and across a six-decade career, Hitchcock produced over 50 feature-length films in what is a remarkable figure by anyone’s standard.
Ostensibly the man who made the thriller genre more cerebral and compelling, his works spoke to humanity’s natural fears in a completely new way. Despite all now being aged, his most notable titles have avoided the dustbin of history, with the pinnacle of his art being the 1960 masterpiece Psycho.
Psycho is a groundbreaking feature that sent chills down the spines of audiences at the time of release and continues to do so today. Telling the story of a strange motel owner who has serious mother issues, this was the moment when thriller’s foray into psychology took a dark turn. Never before had a movie lodged itself so deeply in the personal or collective psyche.
I won’t spoil the plot for those who haven’t seen it, but Psycho is most famous for the shower scene in which the main character, Marion Crane, screams with the high-pitched strings compounding her terrifying shriek. The horrified face of actor Janet Leight is timeless, with the image of her turning to meet the intruder seared into popular culture.
Acutely aware of the film’s impact, Leigh later said: “No other murder mystery in the history of the movies has inspired such merchandising”. Of course, she was correct. As well as increasing the scope of the thriller genre, Psycho also greatly heightened the commercial possibilities that a film could offer. It opened the door for the contemporary titles criticised for being nothing but money-making exercises, such as the contemporary offerings from Disney’s Marvel and Star Wars cinematic universes.
From Brian De Palma to Gus Van Sant, Psycho has impacted practically every auteur that has emerged since its release. One of the most celebrated of this set is Edgar Wright, the mind behind the iconic Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. As Hot Fuzz is in parts both a thriller and a slasher, it is another one of our favourites heavily indebted to Psycho.
Back in 2012, for the BFI’s Sight and Sound Poll, Wright effused about the film, labelling it “a work of art”, and it’s hard to disagree with his account. He even went as far as to ascribe Hitchcock to the title of “most evil of puppetmasters”, another valid point.
Wright said: “Whether it’s playing at 109 minutes or 24 hours, Psycho is a work of art. That this gleeful subversion of conventions was both a creative triumph and an enormous box-office hit is quite extraordinary. He may not have won an Oscar, but this film canonised Hitchcock as one of the greatest filmmakers and most evil of puppetmasters.”
