This weekend a movie has been released. PSYCHO, not the original, but a recreation. Some would say a loving heartfelt homage to every shot and angle.
I have no doubt that Van Sant loved doing this film. And I have no doubt that Danny Elfman loved playing with Herrmann’s score. And you just know that Anne Heche and that SWINGERS guy just loved their parts too.
And ya know what? I’m getting letters from a lot of people that have never seen the original that love the film. I get a lot of them from the 13 to 17 age group right now. Some of them have seen the original film by Hitchcock. They compare it favorably, and seem to always say Alfred did it better.
Then I have the older crowd chiming in with outrage and bitterness over the film. Why? Well...
I won’t pay to see PSYCHO. I just don’t really care about the film. Sure, I’ve got the shower curtain up in my bathroom that I was sent. It’s cool. The slogans and tag lines are also catchy. But you know what I don’t care.
I’m not a gigantic diehard fan of PSYCHO, as a kid it bored me. I never could get to the shower scene, I was always dead asleep. Then when I did see it, with the correct eyeballs in place... well, I loved it. I even bought the PSYCHO dvd as one of my first purchases. But I bought STRANGERS ON A TRAIN first. And if they had had NORTH BY NORTHWEST or ROPE or THE BIRDS or SUSPICION or NOTORIOUS or SHADOW OF A DOUBT or REAR WINDOW or even THE WRONG MAN... well I’d a bought them first.
But that’s not why I won’t go see PSYCHO, it is because... for me... every dollar spent on this opening weekend could in fact help the film to become successful.
Why am I unwilling to help it?
Have you seen WAKING NED DIVINE? Have you gone to see PLEASANTVILLE? What about HANDS ON A HARD BODY? or VAMPIRES? or ANTZ or A BUG’S LIFE or BELOVED or BABE: PIG IN THE CITY or LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL or all them other films?
For me the idea of paying to see a recreation, is kinda like paying to watch AMERICA’S MOST WANTED. Can I xerox my cash and hand the box office my copies? There are original films out there, hell there are even sequels. Hell there are even remakes.
But recreations? No, there really is no need.
To recreate the greatest films of all time... well it’s a waste of talent. The director himself has said he wasn’t going to make a better film, THEN WHY MAKE IT?
The actors, all of whom I love, are merely stand-ins in this film. With remakes... well take a look at how Hitchcock remade THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. They are actually two very different films, but exploring the same story. It’s reconceiving it, it’s furthering his journey with the film.
But here... the journey wasn’t meant to be altered. A turn was never made. It was, simply a straight line of travel without any changes of significance.
For the last 7 months or so, my friends and I have thought of all the different things we could imagine doing with PSYCHO.
With the whole ‘recreation’ hype, well you could have been so... Hitchcocky.
With the original film, Alfred held casting calls for the part of mother. They were of course high publicized secret auditions. Oh so secret. So everyone from the beginning was thinking about... Mother. You didn’t necessarily know about any of the other stuff, but well...
My friends and I started to think about how cool it would be to lull an unsuspecting audience into a theater, thinking they were safe with a movie called PSYCHO.
Let the film begin the same, continue doing everything right up to the shower the same. THEN... move from the path.
Bring mother to life, or make Marion the Psycho. Just do something different. Fuck with the audience. Make their world... no longer safe. Disturb them. Make them feel afraid to walk from their seat to their car. Make their drive home unsettling, make their home look ominous.
But what Van Sant and crew have done is this.... They’ve made the first safe horror film out of the first unsafe horror film.
That is not cool.
To do a remake of Casablanca and to follow every step and every beat... well... there is no joy, at least for me.
Why do I wish with every fibre of my being that UNIVERSAL would do the Peter Jackson KING KONG remake?
Because from page one it’s different. But it remembers the first film as a fan would, but everytime you would think something like... ‘oh here’s where Kong fights the T-Rex’ well... he throws in a curve, he made the film exciting and new and kept the magic.
I was somewhat excited about PSYCHO till the last couple of days. As the reviews came in, with the changes, the very minor changes... I was lulled into putting on Hitch’s version.
Maybe a few years down the road I’ll catch Van Sant’s. It’ll probably be on TV, or someone will by the DVD for me as a way to force me to see it, and who knows... maybe I’ll be excited and thrilled... probably not. Every still, every shot, every frame that I have seen has been unexciting and unthrilling. So.... that’s the way I see it.
I know you came here to read a review, but this is why you won’t see one instead. The thought of the movie just puts me in a state of ‘blah’. I’ve got to go to sleep now, I’ve got JACK FROST to see in the morning.... sigh...
