Psycho

Psycho (1998) starring Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, and William H. Macy.

Having seen and utterly loved and fallen in love with the original Psycho, by my all time favourite director Alfred Hitchcock, I was slightly nervous about watching this film. What could they possibly do to improve on this film, how on earth could they make it better and more importantly why on earth are they making a remake??

In some ways I feel the usual way of writing my reviews is null and void today, it is here usually that I place a summary of the plot for people, albeit something that that is unspoilerific. However with this movie I am torn...one of the most famous movies and famous plots...should I do a summary...thinking about it I feel it would be amiss not to do one so here goes.

Marion Crane(Heche), who after stealing $40,000 cash, leaves town and ends up at the Bates Motel where she meets the troubled Norman Bates (Vaughn) who seems to be dominated by his mother. Crane is killed, in one of the most famous scenes in cinema history, and along comes her sister (Moore), with detective (Macy) and Marion's boyfriend (Mortensen) in tow, who sets out to discover what has happened to her missing sister.

What to say about this remake? Well it is exactly that, a remake. Not any old remake though, this remake is done pretty frame for frame, shot for shot. It seems that Gus Van Sant has created a near perfect carbon copy of Hitchcock's original. As this is the case how on earth can I criticise it, or the director for that matter. Van Sant has made the decision to give a near exact replica to his audience and because of that the film is fantastic.

The actors in the roles are cast perfectly. Vaughn is brilliant as the psychotic Bates, with the cast built around him. The one thing that this film has improved on is that it did not go on to deliver 3 sequels that were completely unecessary, though going on how long it took for Psycho II to arrive we have another 12 years to wait till I am proved right.

The brilliance of this film is that instead of Van Sant trying to remake the wheel he has created a film that instead remaking the film and destroying the essence of it he has created a film that salutes Hitchcocks original. In my view this film will have brought a new audience to both Psycho and Hitchcock. If this is the case then I have no qualms and a lot of praise for this film. It's only fault is that Hitchcock did not direct, and that is why I can't give the film 5 stars. Harsh but I think ultimately fair.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆