PSYCHO |
| CREDITS: Director: Gus Van Sant. Cast: Anne Heche, Vince Vaughn, Viggo Mortenson,
William H. Macy & Julianne Moore. USA 1998. INTRODUCTION: Gus Van Sant's controversial recreation of this classic masterpiece of cinema is aimed squarely at the MTV generation that missed it the first time round and didn't catch up with it on its recent re-release due to its unforgivably monochrome nature. In the spirit of this I will attempt to review the film on its own merits without a single reference to the 'fat man'. SYNOPSIS: An opening helicopter shot swoops in through the window of a seedy Phoenix hotel room, introducing us to Marion Crane (Heche) and Sam Loomis (Mortenson), star-crossed lovers separated by Sam's crippling financial problems. When Marion sees the opportunity to misappropriate $400,000 from her boss she seizes it with both hands. A tense car journey cross country ends finally ends at a small motel, just 15 miles from Sam's home in Fairvale, but her encounter with the Motel's proprietor Norman Bates (Vaughn) and his overbearing mother, leads her to re-evaluate her decision, changing the trajectory of her life forever. It isn't long before Sam, Marion's sister Lila (Moore) and insurance investigator Arbogast (Macy) come looking for her, and turn up more than they expected at the old Bates Motel. REVIEW: Loosely based on the real-life tale of Ed Gein, like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Silence of the Lambs" before it, this tale of a psychopathic killer seems some what outdated in today's world. A quick polish from original script writer Joseph Stefano cannot hide the fact that the script is now nearly 40 years old. Van Sant tries to disguise the script distinct lack of thrills, by employing various shock tactics, from nudity and gore to random shots of cows and clouds a la Lynch intercut into the action, apparently to give us insight into the mind of the psychopath, but instead just distracting from the narrative, causing confusion a la Lynch. The film drowns in symbolism from Norman's stuffed bird collection, to which Marion 'Crane' will doubtless make a stunning addition, to the name of Master Bates himself, who incidentally does at one point, in another of Van Sant's 'shock' shots. The actors seem miscast as Heche provides us with a Marion far too cool and independent to ever wind up out of control over a man and some money, Macy seems to have stepped right out of a 50's film noir, Robert Forrester delivers a monologue long enough and tedious enough to have been written by Shakespeare himself while Mortenson and Moore struggle with two of the most underdeveloped supporting roles in film history. It is however Vaughn who provides the biggest disappointment, his portrayal of Norman as a gibbering imbecile, with a laugh that screams, no it's me I'm the psycho, is more akin to the 40 something alcoholic, self-abuser of Bloch's original novel than the submissive puppy dog character of Stefano's script. Indeed the impact of the second act is completely ruined by Vaughn's inability to generate any sympathy as he desperately tries to cover up for his mother's crimes. This is an outdated and poorly realised shocker sans shocks. Re-making "Psycho" would seem to be a horrendous error of judgement on Van Sant's part. With the age of the Post-modern ironic horror flick upon us, "Scream" and its ilk are doing big box office, making this forty year old masterpiece seem even more outdated, but then again maybe that's the joke. Van Sant's stab at remaking "Psycho" does not come off without a Hitch. Mutt's Rating: ** |