Hitchcock’s macabre masterpiece broke all of the existing rules for horror films and filmmakers, set the standard for a generation of new ones and kept uncounted masses wary of entering showers. It remains a benchmark for the technique of audience manipulation. Undoubtedly Hitchcock’s most calculated work, he was ably supported by the extraordinary leading performances of Anthony Perkins as the psychotic motel owner and Janet Leigh as the hapless thief, reinforced by Bernard Herman’s evocatively dissonant musical score. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch.