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| marantzo |
 Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:24 pm |
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I really really liked Samson and Delilah when I saw it when I was 9. It was my favourite movie then and I saw it again when I was in Brooklyn that summer. Then I saw it again when I was back in Winnipeg at my neighbourhood theatre. I've seen it on the TV a few times. Not as awe struck as when I saw it as a kid, but still liked it. Mature wasn't as muscular as he should have been but I let that pass.
Much better than Demetrius and the Gladiators. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Watching the mesmerizing new television series Bates Motel prompted me to revisit Psycho to check the reference points. Haven't seen it for a long, long stretch, but it holds up beautifully. This is the first time I've seen it where it didn't scare the shit out of me, however. I could approach it more intellectually this time. But it still has the power to shock.
Amazing how deliberately paced it is in all but the shock sequences. Hitchcock really takes his time, helped immeasurably by the talent and--even more importantly--the charisma of Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Martin Balsam. Perkins's ability to be charmingly quirky without being self-conscious about it; Leigh's impressive stillness, gorgeous eyes, and va-va-voomish figure; and Balsam's effortless acting chops and uniquely east-coast looks make you stick with the slowest of camera moves and longest stretches of no dialogue. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:43 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Funny, I just watched a psycho thriller last night, and also with the theme of keeping a family member "alive" in a manner not unlike that of "Psycho." "The House at the End of the Street," (2012) with Eliz. Shue, J-Law, and Max Thieriot rises a bit above the usual B-movie with a couple of interesting twists and J-Law as a teen who shows some real resourcefulness in not becoming another horror flick casualty.
Your comments, Weed, make me want to rewatch "Psycho" ASAP. For one thing, to discover what "uniquely east-coast looks" look like.  |
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| knox |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:35 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
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Location: St. Louis
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Psycho grew to be too iconic for me. Can't get any shit scared out of me now.
But that doesn't diminish the film at all. If anything, makes it more interesting to watch. I'm surprised Perkins didn't have a more extraordinary career...I should check out his bio. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 2:26 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I have never found Psycho scary. Fun, well-crafted, some good tension. But not scary. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| The mother's dessicated corpse scared me, and prepared me for watching Bones. I can see how it terrified the people who saw it when it first came out. Nice build up of tension. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I certainly jumped. Can't say I was scared. We may be saying the same thing, though. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:45 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| I saw PSYCHO in the theater when I was 9 years old. Scared the living shit out of me. Couldn't sleep for weeks without a light on. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:30 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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A tender age for anyone to see "Psycho."
If anyone has seen "Incendies," can you help me with the math on the ages of the characters? If you've seen it, you remember the shocking reveal, and if you paid attention to the ages of the characters, and the mother's age at death (shown on the tombstone), you may have been confused. Very confused. Help.
What it may boil down to is a casting problem?? And no support from makeup?? Extremely early puberties?
I will spell it all out, with SPOILER alerts billowing, if need be. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:36 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12890
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Joe Vitus wrote: I have never found Psycho scary. Fun, well-crafted, some good tension. But not scary.
I just watched Les Diaboliques and had about the same reaction. I think the most intense scenes have been ripped off too many times, or maybe you just have to see it under the right conditions. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 5:08 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: I have never found Psycho scary. Fun, well-crafted, some good tension. But not scary.
I just watched Les Diaboliques and had about the same reaction. I think the most intense scenes have been ripped off too many times, or maybe you just have to see it under the right conditions.
No present-day moviegoer could possibly experience the sheer horror audiences at the time of the original releases of these films felt. Before Psycho, there had never been a movie where the leading character (played by girl-next-door type Janet Leigh, no less) was killed off with no preparation a third of the way through. It left you with nothing to hang on to, no leading character of any sympathy. You were in a void. It took several minutes to fully absorb the fact that Leigh's character was actually dead and not just faking it to fool the would-be killer. We were that naive. Marion Crane's death was a fitting prelude to the 1960s, where the whole world felt unmoored.
By comparison, the murder in Diabolique (or "Les Diaboliques" if you must) was a walk in the park, but it too was horrifying at the time. Right, it's been done to death since (pun sort of unintended). |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:37 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Syd wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: I have never found Psycho scary. Fun, well-crafted, some good tension. But not scary.
I just watched Les Diaboliques and had about the same reaction. I think the most intense scenes have been ripped off too many times, or maybe you just have to see it under the right conditions.
I never found it scary, probably because I first saw it in the 90s and sort of knew the twist in advance, and I think the fright in Diabolique is heavily dependent on not knowing. There's also a good deal of humor in the film, which elevated the mood too much for me to get much chill. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:00 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
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Location: St. Louis
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Incendies just makes no sense on chronology and one has to overlook it. SPOILERS The woman had a baby when she was, hmmmm, 5, which baby became the prison torture guy at 25 (youngest head torturer in the prison's history, very precocious), and then aged VERY SLOWLY for the next 25-30 years while his children/half-siblings (yechhhh) grew up. END SPOILER
I find none of those iconic films (Diabolique, Psycho) scary and have assumed that it was "you had to be there" situation. I'm a little too young (as is Joe, I would guess) to have seen them when they were released. Another factor is theater v. home. Some things are scary in a theater, when your emotions are affected by audience reaction, while not so much at home. But sometimes it's the other way around, too, if you are home alone and in the right mood. And it's personality, too....some people turn into uber-rationalists when watching suspense/horror and just won't let it get to them on a visceral level. Others watch with their collars loosened so that the neck hairs can rise more easily. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| I get the "lead character killed off" shock, but Norman Bates doesn't kill men so he's not a threat to you. What's to be frightened of? You could take a shower in the Bates Motel every night and nothing would happen to you. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:17 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: I get the "lead character killed off" shock, but Norman Bates doesn't kill men so he's not a threat to you. What's to be frightened of? You could take a shower in the Bates Motel every night and nothing would happen to you.
Are you kidding? Because by this logic, nothing violent in a movie could ever scare me unless it was perpetrated on a male senior citizen living in New York City. |
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