Psycho: Because, sometimes, you just HAVE to watch that First One … !

Which is definitely a long title, I know …

But it’s also one that I feel is — vaguely — justified.

You see, I was an impressionable teen during the 1980s, when quite a few horror films were what’re now called Slasher films.

You know the sort of thing.

They feature a small group of teenagers, all on their own, out in the sticks, being killed off — one at a time and incredibly messily — by a deranged nutter in a mask.

Or featured a small group of teenagers, all on their own, somewhere out in the sticks and being killed off — one at a time and incredibly messily — by a deranged nutter with hideous facial scaring.

Ultimately … ?

I’m thinking a LOT of those Slasher flicks were — very loosely — derived from Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, complete with small group of teens, isolated area and — guess what? — deranged nutter in a mask.

Don’t quote me, though.

But I’m pretty sure Hooper said somewhere he had one killer in mind, when he made Texas Chainsaw Massacre: and THAT was Ed Gein.

Be that as it may, I had little to do, to night.

Except watch a film I’d recorded a couple of days ago.

One that’s still spoken of with a certain amount of reverence, today.

One that saw a certain Mr Hitchcock turn in one of his best known films, and features a central character, again, derived from Ed Gein.

A film and character that made a certain made Anthony Perkins’ career.

Psycho …

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26/11/2011

Psycho — based on the 1959, Robert Bloch novel of the same name — sees Janet Leigh as Marion Crane leaving work early, one day, after emptying her bosses safe of $40, 000.

And … ?

After having an encounter with a highway patrolman, and trading her car in for a new one, arriving at the out-of-the-way Bates Motel: run, or course, by Anthony Perkins’ incredibly twitchy performance as Norman Bates.

The worrying thing about chéz Bates … ?

Is the state of the bathroom: and it’s owners AUDIBLE arguments with his mostly unseen mother.

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Now, there is possibly TONS I could be saying about Psycho, there REALLY is.

For starters, the 1998 remake really doesn’t cut the mustard: at least, as far as I’m concerned. (I’ll be honest, I did try watching it: Vince Vaughan, much as I generally like the man’s style, had me turning the remake distinctly off.)

Hitchcock’s 1960 original?

Well …

I think you really can’t beat the film the spawned a genre.

I think Pyscho is that film …