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Dom Robinson reviews

Psycho (1998)

Check in. Relax. Take a shower.

Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

Psycho is Gus Van Sant's almost-shot-for-shot remake of the 1960 Hitchcock original starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, this time clocking in at four minutes shorter.

For those who haven't seen the original and are too lazy to click on that review, Marion Crane (played by celebrated Hollywood lesbian Anne Heche) gets ideas above her station while having an affair with Sam Loomis (Viggo Mortensen). The subtle differences start early: While at work in an estate agents office, she steals $400,000 (not $40,000) from a client that she had told them was going to be deposited in the bank. Panic grips the mind as she's tailed by the police - but not for the reason she's thinking. After changing her car to avoid capture, this time paying an extra $4,000 instead of the $700 in the original, she checks into Bates Motel where she gets a room for the night and a chat beforehand with the hotel manager Norman Bates (Vince Vaughn), but after taking a shower, she certainly won't be getting a full night's sleep.

Next to the motel is Norman's house, occupied by himself and his mother, an extraordinary creature of whom we never get to see properly and are told is quite ill, but she certainly manages to holler loud enough as to be heard at great distances. When Marion is no longer around, many people come calling including her sister Lila (Julianne Moore), private investigator Milton Arbogast (William H. Macy) and Sheriff Chambers (Philip Baker Hall).

Of the differences between this and the original film, some subtle and some less so, the first major change is the aforementioned 900% increase in the total money stolen ($400,000 instead of $40,000). Later on, as Norman is watching Marion undress in her room, instead of just watching silently, he now masturbates off-camera. As for the moment everyone wants to know about - the shower scene is slightly more violent. An effect used to make the frames of the film "stutter" as Marion struggles, adds to the impact and she seems to get knifed more often. When she finally keels over, there's more nudity than before and we almost get to see all of what her girlfriend, Ellen Degeneres, sees on a regular occasion. Similarly, there's more blood - as Heche falls down in the shower, there's actually blood coming out of her back behind her this time round.

Of course, other major changes are that whereas the first film was shot in black and white, this one is in colour. The original was in mono sound, this one in Dolby Digital 5.1. Finally, the film is dedicated in memory of Alfred Hitchcock. At the end of the film, there's a cameo from Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, The Black Hole) as the man who explains Norman's state of mind.

The film is a reunion of sorts for a few of the principal cast members. Vince Vaughn worked with Julianne Moore on The Lost World: Jurassic Park, but she also worked beforehand with William H. Macy and Philip Baker Hall (Sheriff Chambers) in Boogie Nights. Similarly, Macy also worked with Anne Heche in the political satire, Wag The Dog.

movie pic

# Come on over to my place,
Hey you, we're having a party... #

As it states in the "Psycho Path" documentary, stark colours are used - clearly many more than the black-and-white original and they look great, but there's a slight level of grain found within most of the film which can be distracting at times. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 and the print is anamorphically-enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions which provides 33% higher resolution and the average bitrate is a very good 8.5Mb/s, rarely fluctuating much, apart from early on in the film when it drops as low as 1Mb/s, but then the opening credits don't need that much bitrate.

The sound comes across very well in Dolby Digital 5.1 as you'd imagine, with sounds that were once made in mono being translated into surround, giving more emphasis on voiceovers, such as those while Marion is driving, the crack of thunder as it pours down and the weird goings-on in Norman's head in his final scene. Bernard Herrmann's score has been used again, but this time adapted by Danny Elfman.

movie pic

It's behind you...

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

There are 18 chapters covering the 100 minutes of the film, which is eight less than the UK release of the original version, so you can't do a chapter stop-to-chapter stop comparison. The original theatrical trailer is included.

Languages and Subtitles :

Dolby Digital 5.1 adorns the English soundtrack, but the Germans have to put up with surround sound only. Subtitles are available in ten languages: English, Dutch, German, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Hebrew, Polish and Czech.

Filmographies, Biographies and Production Notes:

Extensive biographies with accompanying filmographies are available for Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Viggo Mortensen, Anne Heche and director Gus Van Sant.

Other extras:

Menu :

The menu on this DVD is one of the best I've seen. Animated and scored, it starts with a menacing shot of Vince Vaughn and continues with Anne Heche dying in the shower with blood pouring down the plug hole. Selecting one of the options takes it to another menu which is almost equally-impressive, but the 'slash' of the menu is very well done. On playing the disc you see the Universal logo and a copyright message before the main menu appears.

movie pic

Even when threatened with death, Arbogast still found time
to wow the crowd with an Al Jolson tribute. Mammy !

All eyes will be on the principal leads here. Heche is fine as Marion Crane, but Vaughn just behaves as if he's performing for a Saturday Night Live sketch, without any true feeling given to the part at all. The other actors play out their parts to a satisfactory conclusion, but the whole project smacks of one word - Why?

It's easy to criticise, but after seeing the original film first, the remake is a non-entity. It lacks any form of suspense, especially in the shower scene since we know she's going to die and even if you haven't seen the film before playing this DVD, you'll know something's up as the animated menus tell all! That said, if I'd seen the remake before the original, I may be championing Van Sant's version over Hitchcock's. After all, I preferred Compulsion, starring Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell, to Hitchcock's Rope, both of which had the same story and I preferred Scorsese's Cape Fear to the original. In both cases, I saw the remake before the original.

Overall, both DVDs have been released in the same month, so if you prefer one of them, then there's no reason to pass up on your chosen version. The UK DVD of this remake also comes complete with all the extras from the American release, so you're not missing out there.

A review of the original can be found here. 

FILM	 		: *
PICTURE QUALITY		: ****
SOUND QUALITY		: ****
EXTRAS			: ****
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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