Piedmont Park goes Psycho, Screen on the Green goes limp

If you have no fear of knife-wielding maniacs (or rumors of heavy traffic), be sure to bring a picnic and claim a patch of Piedmont Park for Saturday night’s 50th anniversary screening of Psycho. The Atlanta Film Festival’s 50th anniversary showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s ironic slasher mystery is nicknamed “Movie on the Meadow” instead of “Screen on the Green,” but the latter outdoor film series returns to Piedmont Park this year after two years at Centennial Park. Incidentally, Screen on the Green’s line-up, running May 27-June 24, turns out to be kinda lame, starting out with two dreadful blockbusters — National Treasure and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — followed by Dreamgirls and Star Wars, and winding up with a viewer’s choice selection of either Jurassic Park, Casino Royale or The Incredible Hulk.

Seeing Psycho with a big group outdoors promises to be a neat-o experience, because the film has a subtle, wicked sense of humor that may got unnoticed the first time you see it. Consider dark comedy of the original trailer, which riffs on Hitchcock’s celebrity. They don’t make them like this any more: