A superb essay in Hitchcockian suspense which puts all its sleazy Friday the 13th imitators to shame with its dazzling skills and mocking wit. Rarely have the remoter corners of the wide screen been used to such good effect as shifting volumes of darkness and light reveal the presence of a sinister something. We know, and director John Carpenter knows we know, that its all a game as his psycho starts decimating teenagers after observing them indulging in the sexual act. Perhaps not quite as resonant as Psycho, to which it pays due homage, but it breathes the same air.

U.S.A., 1978. With: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance. Colour. Anamorphic. 91 mins.