Just got of the phone from my daily call from my Mum, she calls me every day since the pandemic started and we chat for 10 minutes just to summarise the day, really nice actually.
Anyway, I asked her if she remembered my great Grandad being scared by… and she completed the sentence… Psycho! It’s a legendary family tale. She knew immediately where I was heading.
I had been exposed to the film twice as a child, the initial story I have already spoken of and a 2nd time when I was about 8 and I stayed the weekend at my Uncle and Aunt’s house before they had children.
I used to always occupy myself with their incredible Hi-Fi system which was in the corner of the living room. I would listen on big Hi-Fi headphones to their records and tape them if I could. My Aunt was the only one in the house on this occasion and I remember her being scared witless by the film, like nervously wanting to talk to me interrupting my Hi-Fi experience. I thought she must be watching some real scary shit, then it clicked it was the film my great Grandad was horrified by. I actually think I remember the unique look of the movie to from glancing at it. I quite purposefully didn’t watch and tried to consume myself with the Hi-Fi.
Due to this exposure and more so people talking about the film I have always known its key twists, this doesn’t detract from the film but I do wish I’d seen it cold. Not knowing. That would be an incredible experience.
Anyway, my Mum, on the phone call just told me that she saw it at the cinema when it came out. She would have been underage but said that with10 Park Drive and make-up she should get in anywhere as a teenager.
She told me the impact of the film. People screaming in the cinema. People actually running out of the cinema. As exposed to some wild films as I have been I cannot imagine anyone being so terrified they actually run out of a cinema.
It’s a unique film at I guess a unique time. No Internet, no real spoilers anywhere. I’m not even sure if it’s an 18 or X Rated film or a 15, etc, but these stories paint a true picture of what must be one of the best films ever made.
