Precious King

Psycho 1960 vs. Psycho 1998

Psycho being one of the very few horror films to be labelled as ‘perfect’ and 'genius' is just one of the many reasons as to why when Gus Van Sant decided to do a remake in 1998 there was a great deal of controversy . Having watched both versions, I was able to see why Van Sant’s remake received so much negative attention. Here are some of the points I picked up on:

In the remake when Marion enters Normans house for some sandwiches, the stuffed birds hanging on the walls have been edited to a ‘soft focus’ completely ruining and defeating the purpose of the animalistic imagery that was so perfectly portrayed in the original movie.

Another criticism of the remake is that it is not set in black and white but in colour. I can now understand clearly as to why Hitchcock chose to make the film this way in the first place as I found the colours to be too distracting causing the film to lose its element of intensity.

One of the main reasons I believe the 1998 remake to be so unsuccessful is that Van Sant attempted to copy the original down to every last detail. This made the remake seem forced and quite uncomfortable to watch as there was no element of shock and/or surprise due to its unoriginality.

The worst part of the remake for me was the shower scene because of its poor attempt to replicate. Below are both versions so you can decide for yourself.