Film Squirrel

Ranking perhaps as my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, Psycho has shocked and delighted audiences for fifty years come 2010. It’s not by accident, the film holds up spectacularly well.

Anthony Perkins is creepy in the truest sense as Norman Bates and Janet Leigh as the ill-fated Marion Crane was never better. Make sure you get the original and not the shot-for-shot Gus Van Sant 1998 remake.

But be warned, you may never want to take a shower again.

It’s hard to fathom, but The Shining wasn’t a success upon its release in 1980. The critics were lukewarm, audiences didn’t show, and Stephen King even went on record bashing it. Today, it’s regarded as a horror classic and a cultural touchstone- who can forget Jack’s “Here’s Johnny” (ad-libbed, no less!)? Sure, you’ve seen it a hundred times, but I bet you still haven’t figured out what the deal is with the dude in the bear suit.