Psycho

(Spoilers!) I loved this film! It's renowned for a reason.

The watching experience of Psycho is really remarkable. Alfred Hitchcock completely manipulates his viewers into believing one thing about where the film is going and then surprise!!! Marion is dead less than halfway through the movie! It keeps you on your toes. Also, when "Mrs. Bates" first kills Marion I thought that it was Norman, because of the way he talked about his mother (I assumed his relationship with her and with women was a bit confused and Freudian) and the fact that stabbing someone to death isn't too easy, but I ignored that instinct. The film is just very well done.

Also, I don't remember exactly when but there are a few very striking shots of Norman where he was lit from the side so one side of his face is light and one is dark, which I obviously didn't realize at the time but are symbolic for the two personalities inhabiting his body.

Norman's character was also super well done, both by Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins. It is obvious from the beginning he is disturbed, but I still felt sympathy for him up until the end.  

The end of the film was quite odd though, I don't know how I feel about being told exactly what happened and exactly what was wrong with Norman. It made the entire thing feel more like a regular noir-mystery-type-of-thing rather than an intellectual, sophisticated film. I kind of wish the ending was a bit more vague so we could come to those conclusions ourselves as our final task as viewers.