Psycho: Original Theatrical Cut at Showroom Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s most famous exercise in suspense, film fans are more than familiar with Janet Leigh as the woman on the run, Anthony Perkins as the quintessentially creepy motel proprietor, that shower sequence, and Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score. But away from those show-stopper moments, Hitchcock’s movement of the camera is astonishing on a moment-to-moment basis. Every creeping motion is directed to manipulate the audience, engineered to build and release tension in tandem with the films famously unusual structure.
If the film is familiar, then there’s a twist to the upcoming screenings in Sheffield — this month Psycho is back on the big screen with a cut that hasn’t been shown since its original run. Restored in eye-popping 4K, the film has also been refitted with a few brief extended sequences that were censoriously removed following its initial 1960 theatrical release — meaning this is your chance to catch Hitchcock’s masterpiece exactly how the director originally intended.
