"Psycho" (1960) Talkback (Spoilers)

[Lord Dalek]

This talkback was originally posted at Toon Zone on October 10, 2007. It is reprinted here in a slightly revised version.

A New -and altogether different- screen excitement!!!



"A boy's best friend is his mother" - Norman Bates

Release Date: June 16, 1960
Studio: Paramount/Shamley (Universal dist.)
Director: Sir Alfred Hitchcock
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (open matte)
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and JANET LEIGH as MARION CRANE

Plot Summary: For Marion Crane, it's been quite an eventful day. The day before, she had stolen $40,000 from her employer's client, packed her bags and driven all day on her way to join her paramour several hundred miles away. Now, she is taking a relaxing hot shower after her long day's journey. The remoteness of the motel suit her purposes perfectly. The only sounds heard are the chirping of the crickets, the splashing of the water, and her humming contentedly as the hot needles of water caress her aching shoulders.

COMMENTS?

As part of an attempt to remedy the dearth of Hitchcock talkbacks on this forum, I've decided to do some for my favorites including this 1960 classic.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, this is pretty much my favorite movie. Top 5, at least.

Gets funnier after each viewing.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Arguably Hitchcock's "best" film in terms of both its critical acclaim and its influence on the suspense and horror genres. Its probably either my 3rd or 4th favorite Hitchcock film, personally (I say this because I'm not sure whether I would rank this above North by Northwest or not since I haven't seen that film in quite a while).

I still think that to this day it has one of the best-written plot twists of all-time. Norman Bates is also one of the most interesting film characters to really break down and analyze. Overall its the closest thing to perfect that I have seen from a suspense film like this.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Normally a bait and switch like that would annoy me... if it wasn't so perfectly done. Love this film.

[Lord Dalek]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDmbtyiAtjA&feature=related - hehehe.

[Spark Of Spirit]

am I literally the only person alive that thinks the one with Vince Vaughn was better? Lets break this down in the original the killings were obviously acted and in the new one you even see the stab wounds which adds effect. The original Norman bates looked like a sweet heart not a psychopathic schizophrenic. There was something about Vince that made him creepy. I watched both of them and to be 100% honest the original didn't keep my attention

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hmmmm....Now that I think about it, I realize that the fact that Anthony Perkins played Norman Bates in such a way that he did seem so normal (well, except for the fact that he "supposedly" lived with his mother) in the original movie his role was all the more intriguing for it. The ending was all the more shocking with that plot twist at the end, when nobody watching the movie for the first time (unless you already had it spoiled for you through the insane amount of pop-culture references that this movie gets) would have guessed that someone as seemingly innocent as Norman Bates had dual personalities. His reactions to things throughout the movie and the way he acted in general had their own quirky nature to them, but on the whole he acted very much like how one would expect a normal person to act (granted that he was already a strange character in his obsession with protecting his mother, but that itself is a believable enough aspect of any regular person who loves their mother enough to protect her from the law).

With Vince Vaughn, even if you had never seen the original Psycho or heard anything about the story through pop-culture or from anyone else, it would still be completely predictable that he was the true psycho all along. They just made him act so blatantly obvious towards having serious mental issues. It pretty much killed the feeling of suspense from the movie that Hitchcock was so masterful and capturing in the original film.

[Avaitor]

I never watched the remake, but going frame by frame of both in this vid... there's no comparison. Added blood and nudity a more shocking scene does not make.

[Kiddington]

Vince Vaughn is a more imposing figure, I'll say that. The guy's like 7-feet tall, and he can be pretty intimidating in the right context.

...but a better movie overall? Ehhhhh. I don't know if I'd go that far.

[Angus]

Hmm, need to see the Vince Vaughn version. It might be comparable to the sequels?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Always thought that the shot-for-shot thing was just Gus Van Sant trolling the executives who wanted to remake the film.

[Lord Dalek]

The remake has got to be one of the dumbest ideas in the history of cinema. Thank god it bombed hard.

[Spark Of Spirit]

The remake sucks. It's absolutely pointless in every way. All the "additions" take away from a lot of the subtlety of the older work, and the acting is hammy to a fault. Is it too much to ask for genuine emotion and character in a horror movie beyond "dickwad" and "damsel"?

Like all modern horror movies, it's the lack of subtlety that kills it.

And yes I know the original isn't a horror movie. This one tries to be. Hence why it fails.