Psycho98

Psycho (1998) – Brian McNail

Can someone please explain to me why Vince Vaughn has not been in more horror
movies? Vince Vaughn missed his true calling in Hollywood by going the comedy route; he is a natural psycho which I guess is how he probably got the title role for the 1998 remake of the
Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. Unfortunately for Vaughn outside of an incredible performance by William H. Macy there really isn’t any other comparison to the original flick.

Anne Heche has a forgettable role of Marion Crane an executive assistant who
embezzles a large sum of cash to help her loser boyfriend Sam (Viggo Mortenson)
get out of some trouble. What exactly that trouble was I have no Earthly idea because unless it is mentioned in the 4 minute scene in which we not only see Sam’s ass for no reason but a noticeable “tramp stamp” on Sam as well. Anyways we see Marion steal the money and then get into her car and start driving from Phoenix. Eventually the long drive has
caught up with her and she needs some sleep and in a movie with one of the most
famous hotels in horror she of course sleeps in the car.

The next morning she awoken by a cop who checks her license and then follows her for the next 10 minutes including her trading in her car for another one. Then the cop is never heard from
again, the only reason she bought the car was to evade the cop but even though he sees her in the new car he never follows her again. Maybe he was in love with the old car? It is never explained and if the filmmakers don’t care, why should I?

Thirty-Three minutes into the flick we finally get to the Bates Motel and meet Norman Bates. While Vaughn is no where even close to the original version of Bates he does an incredible job, so much so I actually keep watching the movie and don’t start drinking heavy booze. Whereas Anthony Perkins played the character as a straight laced mama’s boy, Vaughn reminds me
of a Saturday Night Live spoof of Forrest Gump with a little sprinkle of Billy Bob Thornton in Slingblade.

About 48 minutes into this movie is the first kill which is a shot by shot recreation of the original shower scene from the original Psycho, except where Janet Leigh and just about every spoof of it since has done a wonderful job of showing fear and the pain the character was feeling Anne Heche just kind of stands there and screams and then awkwardly falls over showing her ass to the camera. I literally felt nothing about the death of Crane other than perhaps a little bit of happiness that I wouldn’t have to endure anymore screen time of Heche.

The next characters entering the movie are William H. Macy as Milton Arbogast a private investigator hired by the client Crane embezzled from, and her sister Lila Crane played by Julianne Moore. Not much to say other than Arbogast puts all the puzzle pieces on the table and
makes a phone call before going back to the Bates Motel to interview Norman’s mother in which he gets an ax to the forehead.

His disappearance leads to Sam and Lila traveling to the Bates Motel to do some undercover work, we also learn from the local chief of police that Norman’s mother has been dead for a long time in the only case of Murder/Suicide the county has ever known.

Much like the Scooby Gang, Sam and Lila split up with Sam keeping Norman busy while Lila goes into the house to find Norman’s mother. Sam eats a golf club to the back of the head and rushes to check on his mother. Lila finds the corpse of Ms. Bates and is attacked by Norman in drag finally getting knocked out by Sam who recovers from a crushing skull blow with
a 9 iron just in the nick of time. Norman is locked in a mental ward at the county jail and Marion’s car is dragged out of the swamp with the characters wondering what happened to all the
money.

Okay now that the plot is out of the way, this movie does a great job of retelling the story of Psycho almost to the point that you wonder why they bothered with remaking the movie. Almost
everyone that knows anything about horror knows Norman Bates dressed up as his mother and killed people. Hell that’s where the switch in the original Friday the 13th came into play with
the mother acting like the son. This movie just kept plugging right away with the notion that Norman really does have a controlling mother that is killing everyone, even going as far as to
have the characters hear his mother berate him.

Norman is creepy and I’m not 100% sure but I think they implied when he is watching Heche prepare for her shower masturbating but I could be wrong it is just a weird kind of gesture Vaughn makes when he backs up from the peephole. I can’t really suggest anyone watch this flick, I just can’t. It is almost word for word, shot for shot like the original and if you’re going to watch it you might as well watch the original one. Unlike all of the other remakes that get made that change stuff for good or worse at least it’s a different interpretation. There
isn’t any of that. At least Psycho II in the 80s continued the story on which is what really this should have done. Or perhaps it could have gone the Friday the 13th remake route and acknowledged the original and then made its own movie of it. I’d have liked to see
what happened to more of the guests from the Bates Motel or at least found out
what the cop’s deal was.

The Remake of Psycho gets Nailed with a 2 out of 5.