Psycho IV: The Beginning
Blu-ray
Director: Mick Garris
Screenwriter: Joseph Stefano
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Henry Thomas, Olivia Hussey, CCH Pounder
Distributor: Scream Factory
Rated R | 96 Minutes
Release Date: August 23, 2016

Considered one of the first entries in the slasher film genre, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho introduced audiences to Norman Bates, the disturbed proprietor of the Bates Motel. Played by Anthony Perkins, Norman suffers from dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother’s personality to escape the guilt he feels for murdering her. Whenever Norman feels attracted to another woman, “Mother” flies into a psychotic rage and kills her. The 1960 film has become one of the most recognizable and influential movies ever; the shower scene, in which Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane is stabbed to death, is the most iconic death captured on celluloid.

While Hitchcock’s original is an unforgettable part of cinematic history, the film’s sequels are rarely talked about with the same esteem.