Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this 1960 film thriller based on a novel by Robert Bloch is remembered for its depiction of on-screen violence and for its celebrated "shower scene." Shot on a shoestring budget of $800,000 by the crew of Hitchcock's television show, this black-and-white classic was a carefully crafted work of cinema that also upped the ante on movie mayhem. The staggering box-office success of Psycho —it has earned $40 million to date—inspired, and continues to encourage, a host of imitators who are still pushing the envelope on filmic bloodshed, but rarely with the artistry displayed by Hitchcock. Psycho is the first classic black-and-white film since Selznick's The Prisoner of Zenda that underwent a later, full-color, shot-for-shot remake of its original script.

Mystery/fantasy/science-fiction writer Bloch based his 1959 novel Psycho very loosely on the real-life case of murderer Ed Gein. The book tells the story of a lonely...