Psycho * (1998, Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Viggo Mortensen, Julianne Moore, William H Macy, Robert Forster, Philip Baker Hall) – Classic Movie Review 2301

Director Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic is a pointless lost cause. Van Sant won the 1999 Razzie award for Worst Director and the film won the Razzie for Worst Remake or Sequel, tied with Godzilla (1998) and The Avengers (1998).

It is a more or less frame for frame colour remake, even keeping Saul Bass’s credits, Bernard Herrmann’s score (adapted by Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek) and a Hitchcock-lookalike personal appearance. The infamous shower sequence is a shade more revealing, but much less effective, with fake-looking blood, and, as Norman Bates, Vince Vaughn is endlessly twitchy, giggly and a clear psycho, which is not the point at all. Anne Heche’s fleeing embezzler  character Marion Crane has to trust him and we have to believe that his Mommy is the killer.

The stolen money increases from $40,000 in 1960 to $400,000 and Vaughn’s Norman masturbates while peering at Heche’s Marion through the hole in the motel wall. Otherwise nothing has changed. That’s not too surprising, as original screenwriter Joseph Stefano again provides the screenplay, based on his 1960 one and of course the source novel by Robert Bloch.

This truly bizarre enterprise, whose purpose is utterly bewildering, turns out to be very nearly a total disaster. Though brisk and professional in every way, everything about it is far, far inferior to Hitchcock’s great horror classic. All the performances are second-rate and in each case it’s impossible to erase the memory of the originals, leaving an eerie feeling over the project. Only the beautifully chosen, retro colour and production designs by Tom Foden, and Christopher Doyle’s cinematography are of special interest.

A sign for the Bates Motel reads ‘Newly Renovated’. The exterior motel set is the same one used in the original Psycho. But the Bates house, incidentally, has been pointlessly remodelled. The house is a new set constructed directly in front of the old house on the backlot at Universal Studios. On completion of filming, they moved this second house alongside the first for the backlot tour.

What is Van Sant up to? Asked why he did a shot-for-shot colour remake of Psycho, Van Sant replied: ‘So no one else would have to.’ At least the movie has the virtue of making you desperate to see Hitchcock’s movie again immediately, or maybe just taste a shower and wash this one off.

It is dedicated to Hitchcock and made with thanks to his daughter, Patricia, who was in the original and gave the film her blessing. The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Screaming’ and Rob Zombie’s ‘Living Dead Girl’ are on the soundtrack.

It also stars Viggo Mortensen, Julianne Moore, William H Macy, Robert Forster and Philip Baker Hall. Also in the cast are Anne Haney, Chad Everett, Rance Howard, Rita Wilson, James Remar and James LeGros.

The Special Edition includes new added-value footage.

Van Sant makes a cameo appearance in the same scene Hitchcock does in the original. He is talking to a man in a cowboy hat, supposedly Hitchcock scolding Van Sant.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2301

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