SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Prismark10 This documentary about the infamous shower scene in Psycho has a technical title. 78 camera setups and 52 cuts that took seven days to film.Contributors include Elijah Wood, Bret Easton Ellis, Peter Bogdanovich, David Thomson, Richard Stanley, Sam Raimi, Walter Murch, Eli Roth, Mick Garris, Guillermo del Toro and Jamie Curtis who talk about the shower scene and how it was put together. Bogdanovich also does his trademarked mimicry.There are important aspects discussed such as how to get round the censors. Shooting in black and white helped as you do not see any red blood. We even find out how influential the violence in Psycho was for other films. Italian filmmakers took it to a visceral horror art level. Martin Scorsese even mirrored it in Raging Bull.However at 90 minutes it does feel a bit overlong, there was a lot of waffle and Psycho has been examined to death already.

zkonedog Considering that "Psycho" has long been a "top movie of all-time" in my book, I knew I would be watching this documentary when I first saw the trailer. Considering how many times I've seen the movie and how many stories I've already heard from it, perhaps the most impressive thing I gleaned from "78/52" was how it was able to approach the topic from such a new, fresh perspective.Basically, this documentary looks at "Psycho" from the perspective of its now-infamous "shower scene". While other topics are discussed and other stories are told, the narrative always shifts back to the construction of that sequence, which was truly momentous both in its time and even today. It completely changed the game of American cinema forever.I really liked how this documentary was basically just a whole bunch of film geeks and/or industry insiders sitting around watching/talking about certain scenes. I mean, that's what it's all about, right? As movie fans, a large part of the fun of the experience is to discuss it with others after the fact, and that is the tone that "78/52" hits on. I felt like I was sitting around discussing the shower scene and everything that springs forth from it with family or friends.So, I highly recommend "78/52" to any fans of "Psycho", obviously, but also for those who just love to discuss movies! It's technical enough to be enlightening, but not technical enough to keep it from being a great discussion/history of certain aspects of the scene, "Psycho" as a whole, & Hitchcock (and Co.) in general.

Michael_Elliott 78/52 (2017) **** (out of 4)The shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO lasted for less than a minute yet it took seven days to shoot. This wonderfully entertaining documentary takes a look at that minute worth of footage and breaks everything down from the score, to the edits, to the violence and certain things throughout the movie that foreshadows it.78/52 is a highly entertaining documentary that fans of PSYCHO are going to really enjoy. A lot of documentaries (like the one on THE SHINING) are a bit far-fetched in their ideas but that's not the case here as everyone interviewed is basically a fan and we break the sequence down in so many ways that you'll be seeing things for the first time. I've seen this movie countless times in my life and yet I learned a few new things here.The people interviewed include: Peter Bogdanovich, Jamie Lee Curtis, Guillermo del Toro, Alan Barnette, Justin Benson, Danny Elfman, Bret Easton Ellis, Jeffrey Ford, Mick Garris, Neil Marshall, Bob Murawski, Elijah Wood and Richard Stanley. We also get archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, Janet Leigh and Joseph Stefano. Also interviewed is Marli Renfro who was Leigh's body double during the shower sequence.The documentary does a really great job at showing how marvelous the sequence was. We get to watch it slowed down as well as getting comments on various edits, why the edits were done and countless other stories. This documentary covers a lot of ground in its running time and there's really not a weak moment to be found. If you're a fan of PSYCHO then I'm sure you've seen other documentaries on the sequence but this one here takes it to a new level. Of course, one of the biggest highlights is having Renfro discuss how she got the part, what Hitchcock was like and how the shooting of the scene went. She was certainly a major player in this sequence so it was great getting to hear from her and get her stories.

gavin6942 An unprecedented look at the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), the "man behind the curtain", and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of world cinema.While it might seem like quite a feat to devote 90 minutes of coverage to a one-minute segment of a film, this documentary pulls it off. By exploring every possible angle -- the sounds, the editing, the casting -- we see just how much went into getting the notorious shower scene just right. Most interesting is how many clues are in the film leading up to this moment that may not be obvious, but were sprinkled there by Hitchcock with a knowing wink."78/52" is playing on July 20, 2017 at the Fantasia International Film Festival. In this golden age of documentaries, this film still stands out as the cream of the crop.