Dogeoof has announced today that the bold, stylish and incisive new documentary 78/52 – the film which pulls back the curtain on one of cinema’s greatest ever scenes – slashes its way onto DVD on in December.

In 78 setups and 52 cuts, the deliriously choreographed two-minute shower sequence in Psycho ripped apart cinema’s definition of horror. With a shocking combination of exploitation and high art, Alfred Hitchcock upended his own acclaimed narrative structure by violently killing off a heroine a third of the way through his film, without explanation, justification, or higher purpose. Psycho played out like a horrific prank, forcing audiences to recognize that even the most banal domestic spaces were now fair game for unspeakable mayhem.

With black-and-white film-geek reverence, director Alexandre O. Philippe breaks down this most notorious and essential scene shot for shot, enlisting the help of film buffs and filmmakers alike - including Guillermo del Toro, Bret Easton Ellis, Karyn Kusama, Eli Roth and Peter Bogdanovich. 78/52 examines Janet Leigh’s terrified facial expressions and the blink-and-you-miss-it camera work, not just within the context of the film but also with an eye toward America’s changing social mores - revealing how one bloody, chaotic on-screen death killed off chaste cinema and eerily predicted a decade of unprecedented violence and upheaval.

78/52 will be released on UK DVD on 11 December 2017 by Dogwoof at the RRP of £15.99.

Special features:

• Director Alexandre O'Phillipe in conversation with Danny Leigh
• Extended interviews with Guillermo del Toro and Walter Murch
• Melon featurette
• Recording the 78/52 score
• Psycho intro by Alexandre and Ben Mankiewicz (courtesy of Turner Classic Movies, Inc.)
• Theatrical trailer