In 2012, Mirren played Alfred Hitchcock's wife Alma Reville in the 2012 biopic "Hitchcock", directed by Sacha Gervasi and based on Stephen Rebello's non-fiction book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho". The film centres on the pair's relationship during the making of "Psycho", a controversial horror film that became one of the most acclaimed and influential works in the filmmaker's career. It became a moderate arthouse success and garnered a lukewarm critical response from critics, who felt that it suffered from "tonal inconsistency and a lack of truly insightful retrospection." Mirren was universally praised for her play however, with Roger Ebert noting that the film depended most on her portrayal, which he found to be "warm and effective." Her other film that year was "The Door", a claustrophobic drama film directed by István Szabó, based on the Hungarian novel of the same name. Set at the height of communist rule in 1960s Hungary, the story of the adaptation centres on the abrasive influence that a mysterious housekeeper wields over her employer and successful novelist, played Martina Gedeck. Mirren found the role "difficult to play" and cited doing it as "one of the hardest things has ever done."