If you pay attention to these things, you’d know that June 16th was the 51st anniversary of the release of Psycho – a movie that changed one man’s legacy, the fate of a genre, and the creation of a new subgenre. So why didn’t I post the trailer then? Probably the same reason I didn’t post anything at all yesterday: we all go a little crazy sometime. In this phenomenal, long-form teaser trailer, Alfred Hitchcock takes us on a tour around the Bates Motel as well as the house on the hill where he explains that a few horrific events have taken place. It’s a promise that we’ll get to see those events when the movie hits theaters. Yet, no one will be allowed in after the movie starts. (Another thing this movie changed forever.) If you dig this trailer (you will) and the movie (you do), you’ll enjoy this coming Wednesday’s episode of Reject Radio where I’ll be discussing Psycho‘s production and legacy with expert Stephen Rebello. Tune in and find out what Janet Leigh did to John Gavin on the bedroom set. For now, just enjoy Hitch’s soothing voice:

Stanley Kubrick’s foray into the sand and sandals epic of Spartacus alongside blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and iconic actor Kirk Douglas taught everyone a lot of lessons. It taught Kubrick to always get full control over the script. It taught Kirk Douglas that you could get actors on board by showing them different scripts where more emphasis was placed on their character. It taught an audience what it means to stand up in the heat of the sun, starving to death, to proclaim that you were Spartacus.

There’s almost nothing historically accurate about The Alamo, but it’s a corny piece of entertainment elevated by the presence of The Duke. John Wayne rocks a leather coat with fringe on it throughout this (as the trailer boasts) $12m epic. Twelve million dollars! For a movie! Who would spend that kind of cash? But, seriously, that would be like making a broad Western today for $88m. Not a small amount of money for something with no capes in it. Although Wayne was involved (and partially financed the film himself), it’s Laurence Harvey who won the Badass Award. During a shot, a cannon fell over onto his foot, breaking it, and Harvey continued with the scene and then treated the wound himself. Two years later, he’d go on to play the iconic role of Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate.

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. One of the best horror films of all time focuses on the killer instead of the audience. Fortunately, the killer is the audience. He’s got a camera, and he’s ready to use it. He’s also got a phallic symbol with a sharp pointy tip to watch you scream as he stabs you to death and records your end. The year was 1960, and it was part of the change in cinema (and the self-referential tone that many movies would later adopt). Go out and see it right now, but watch the trailer first. Think you know what it is? Check the trailer out for yourself:

In 1999, I was suffering from the early waves of insomnia. Almost every night, I would try to count sheep or hum softly, but on most nights I succumbed to turning on my television to see what might lull me into sleep. Fortunately, my insomnia lasted well into the Fall when I ended up turning on the television one particular night and catching a black and white film that would change my life.

Doris Day keeps getting phone calls from a sinister voice that keeps promising to kill her.

Much like the great prognosticator of trends that he always was, Billy Wilder drew from the past and anticipated the future by creating a hilarious movie that also happens to deal realistically with infidelity, occupational depression, and suicide.

1960 changed horror filmmaking forever. Don’t believe me? Read on.

A missing woman, a dark mystery that broods and builds into a tempestuous relationship, a painstaking process of turning the big screen into a canvas.