October 20, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES I & III • Page 21 Hitchcock’s classic horror film now available on Blu-ray by Dennis Seuling “Psycho” (Universal Home Entertainment) completely changed the face of horror films, opening a door into greater on-screen violence, disturbingly graphic images, and terror deriving from what is possible rather than what is not. Watched today, “Psycho” might seem tame compared with such movies as “Saw,” “Hostel,” or even “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” but it was a genuine shocker when it was originally released in 1960. Director Alfred Hitchcock, always the businessman, had just completed “North by Northwest,” a large-budget M-G-M film starring Cary Grant. Though it was a hit, it was so costly and Grant’s salary was so high that Hithcock’s piece of the pie was not very big. In 1955, the French director Henri-Georges Clouzot released the low-budget black-and-white thriller “Diabolique,” which became a worldwide hit largely because of a big, shocking secret and one terrifying scene. The film took in a fortune. Hitch resolved to make a similarly low-budget picture that would top “Diabolique” in terms of terror and suspense, his trademarks. The director had his agents purchase a little-known novel by Robert Bloch for $10,000, hired Joseph Stefano to adapt it into a screenplay, and used mostly his TV crew to make the film. He hired affordable rical trailers. “Predators” (20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment), available on Blu-ray and DVD, reintroduces a familiar monster from the 1980s in a whole new context. Academy Award-winner Adrian Brody stars as humorless mercenary Royce, who finds himself in a weird jungle with a group of colorful strangers from all over the world. Where are they? Why are they there? How did they get there? The film’s opening creates the kind of mystery that TV’s “Lost” milked for six seasons. Royce’s companions include an “enforcer” for a South American drug cartel (Danny Trejo), an Israeli sniper (Alice Braga), a Yakuza assassin (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a Russian Special Forces fighter (Oleg Taktarov), an American death row psychopath (Walter Groggins), a death squad soldier from Sierra Leone (Mahershalalhashbaz Ali), and a disgraced doctor (Topher Grace). Directed by Nimrod Antal, “Predators” Anthony Perkins stars as Norman Bates in ‘Psycho.’ stars Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins for the leads. Before the movie was booked into theaters, Hitchcock stipulated that audiences not be admitted after the movie had begun. In the days when people wandered into movies whenever they pleased, this demand was protested by theater managers. However, buoyed by advance publicity and Hitch’s sterling cinematic reputation, they finally acquiesced. This created long lines at theaters, which further piqued moviegoers’ interest. The movie became the biggest hit of Hitchcock’s career. The new Blu-ray release of “Psycho” contains a smorgasbord of extras, including three featurettes, an excerpt from an interview with Hitchcock by Francois Truffaut, an analysis of the famous shower scene, lobby card art, production stills, and theat- uses a variation of the Richard Connell short story “The Most Dangerous Game,” in which a mad big-game hunter causes shipwrecks so he can lure survivors to his island and hunt them in the isolated game preserve, giving the hunter the home field advantage. Unsuspecting species from all over the universe are abducted to a jungle planet and allowed to roam as the title creatures close in and pick them off one by one. The best aspect of “Predators” is the design of the creatures, often shown in close-up so every detail is crystal clear. The mouths are especially fascinating, with a series of tusks that open to reveal a fleshy orifice lined with sharp teeth. Although viewers marvel at the precision of the special effects department’s rendering of such creepy-looking creations, the creatures never scare the audience or convey a sense of dread. 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