Psycho (1998 film)

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Psycho
Image:Psycho98.jpg Original film poster
Directed by	Gus Van Sant
Produced by	Gus Van Sant Brian Grazer
Written by	Joseph Stefano
Starring	Vince Vaughn Anne Heche Julianne Moore Viggo Mortensen William H. Macy
Music by	Bernard Herrmann
Cinematography	Christopher Doyle
Editing by	Amy E. Duddleston
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 4, 1998
Running time	120 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Psycho is a 1998 film remake of the Alfred Hitchcock 1960 version produced and directed by Gus Van Sant for Universal Pictures. Both films are based on the novel Psycho by Robert Bloch.

This version is in color and features a different cast. It is nearly a shot for shot remake that copies Hitchcock's camera movements and editing. A few changes are introduced to account for advancements in technology since the original film and to make the content more explicit. Murder sequences are also intercut with surreal dream images. For a complete plot summary, and discussion of major elements, see the article regarding the 1960 version.

Anne Heche plays Marion Crane, with Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, William H. Macy as Arbogast, Viggo Mortensen as Sam Loomis, and Julianne Moore as Lila Crane. Small roles go to Robert Forster as Dr. Fred Simon, Philip Baker Hall as Sheriff Al Chambers, and Rita Wilson as Caroline. While in the original, Alfred Hitchcock had a cameo as a man in a cowboy hat outside the bank, director Gus Van Sant has a cameo talking to the man in the new version's parallel shot.

The film's soundtrack, Psycho: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture, included Danny Elfman's re-recordings of some of Bernard Herrmann's score for the original film, along with a collection of songs in genres from country to drum and bass, connected mainly by titles containing "psycho" or other death- or insanity-related words. Many of the songs were recorded specifically for the soundtrack, to the extent that a number of them sample Herrmann's score as well.

This version of Psycho received mixed reviews and was awarded two Golden Raspberry Awards, for Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Director (Van Sant).

Trivia

Contrary to popular myth, the Hotel Westward Ho (a Phoenix landmark) does not appear at all in the opening sequece of Hitchcock's Psycho. Hitchcock's version opens on the city's skyline starting in the northeast and panning to southeast. The scene was filmed from atop the former Title and Trust building (now the Orpheum Lofts) on 1st Avenue and Adams. The Westward Ho is out of the camera's range in that view. The tower that is often mistaken for the Ho's TV tower is actually the former KTAR radio tower that once stood atop the Heard Building, located six blocks south of the Westward Ho.

In the 1998 version, the same opening could not be re-created due to the presence of several skyscrapers which now block the view that Hitchcock's team filmed. However, it has been said that Hitchcock had actually wanted a helicopter shot into the city that would ultimately zoom in on a hotel window. It was apparently too windy to perform that shot successfully, and the crew opted for the rooftop shots instead.

In remaking Psycho, Gus van Sant created the scene Hitchcock was unable to film. The camera approaches Downtown from the East, then turns and approaches the Westward Ho from the South until it zooms in to one of the building's windows. The production team used a green screen in the window; the "hotel room" the camera zooms into is a Hollywood set and not an actual room in the Ho. However, the editing is seamless and it is almost impossible to tell.

Two continuity glitches: The titles read "Two forty-three P.M." but the shot was filmed as the sun was rising in the morning (there's almost no traffic on Central Ave, and it's still practically dark at street level). Also, the camera zooms into a room on the 8th floor of the Westward Ho during the opening, but when Marian Crane (Anne Heche) leaves the room, the number on the door is 514.

The script for the original film called for an overhead shot of Marian Crane's body slumped over the bathtub after collapsing and pulling down the shower curtain exposing her buttocks. This shot was almost done but cut short for obvious reasons. The remake however completely restored this shot with Heche along with displaying the knife penetration wounds.

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