Psycho (1960) [Blu-ray]

Product Description

One of the most shocking films of all time, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is now available on Blu-ray featuring perfect picture, a newly created 5.1 audio track and bonus features that take you beyond the movie! Join the Master of Suspense on a chilling journey as an unsuspecting victim (Janet Leigh) visits the Bates Motel and falls prey to one of cinema’s most notorious psychopaths - Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Named #1 on the AFI’s 100 Years…100 Thrills list, this notorious film has become a cultural phenomenon. Featuring one of the most iconic scenes in film history - the famous “shower scene”, Psycho is “still terrifying after all these years” (Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide).

Additional Features

Consumers who purchased the 1998 Collectors' Edition DVD of Psycho will already be familiar with most of the extra content on this Blu-ray, but the sheer quality of the material makes the repeat purchase entirely tolerable. Nearly every aspect of Psycho's production is covered in the supplemental features; the "Making of Psycho" provides an excellent overview through interviews with most of the surviving participants (as of 1998), including Janet Leigh, screenwriter Joseph Stefano (The Outer Limits), editor Paul Hirsch, and Hitchcock's daughter, Patricia, who also appears briefly in the film. Stefano in particular provides exceptional insight into working with Hitchcock and translating Robert Bloch's dark source material into film. Other previously released features include the scholarly commentary track by Hitchcock authority Stephen Rebello; Hitchcock's radio interview with François Truffaut; newsreel footage of the film's release in 1960, with the director's famous admonition that no one be admitted late to a showing; and Saul Bass's storyboards for the shower scene, which is also covered in a three-minute bit that shows the strength of Bernard Herrmann's score in the set piece. The new material is comprised of "In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy," in which a wealth of directors, from Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin to Guillermo del Toro and Eli Roth, discuss the impact of Hitchcock's work on their respective careers. There's also a brief look at how the film's sound was remastered for Dolby 5.1, as well as galleries of poster art and several rerelease trailers and TV spots. --Paul Gaita