7 Respected Directors Who Did Horror
Hitchcock, Kubrick and co get bloody…
BY Jul 3rd 2009 10:10AMFILED UNDER: Features
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Alfred Hitchcock
The Reputation: Pre-Psycho, there were indications that Hitchcock would turn to full-on horror/thriller as he’d slowly been becoming the master of suspense.
He already had the likes of The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Suspicion, Rope, Strangers On A Train, Dial M For Murder and Rear Window until his belt.
Unlike many of his peers, it was surely just a matter of time…
The Horror Flick: Psycho (1960)
Seizing on Robert Bloch’s novel as a way to regain his thriler crown and shove boundaries, Hitchcock is largely faithful in his adaptation, focusing on Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young woman who steals $40,000 from one of her employers and ends up at the Bates Motel.
Where, it just so happens that a certain mother-obsessed psychopath (Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates) kills her.
The Signature Move: Crane’s early bath (or should that be shower?) is a trademark Hitchcock note – his female leads often get offed early in proceedings.
And it also continues two recurring motifs – murders that shatter lives and the director himself in a cameo.
The Critical Response: Mixed. The New York Times sniffed that it: "Comes at you with a club in this frankly intended bloodcurdler" and moaned that the "denouement falls quite flat for us.”
Variety was much more positive: “An unusual, good entertainment, indelibly Hitchcock, and on the right kind of box office beam.”
The rest, as the cliché runs, is history: Psycho was a sensation and is now one of the most recognisable, parodied and referenced movies ever made.
Next: Coppola
Print Comments (2)
1: ebrown2112 says
Doesn't Scorsese's "Cape Fear" count? I guess it's too early to consider "Shutter Island".
Posted: Jul 3rd 2009 // 2:09PMAlert a moderator
2: RastaFresh says
I guess Scorsese's "Cape Fear" is not included because it's a remake. The original, with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, was made in 1962 by J. Lee Thompson. I've seen "Shutter Island" trailer. Seams excellent!
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