Psycho: dir Alfred Hitchcock (1960)

It doesn’t get much better than the original if you want a psychological thriller dripping with suspense. Janet Leigh stars as Phoenix secretary Marion Crane, absconding with a small fortune of her employer’s money; she takes a wrong turn in a storm and finds herself at the Bates Motel, where Anthony Perkins is in suitably scary form as proprietor Norman Bates. We all know what happens next, but as private detective Martin Balsam and Marion’s sister (Vera Miles) search for Marion, the horror and the suspense mount to a terrifying climax … Hitchcock’s film, definitely one of his greatest movies, has become a cultural phenomenon with its mix of suspense, horror, mystery, black comedy; this is the original cut of the movie, exactly as intended by the director.