THE MOVIE PSYCHO 1998 MOVIE
This caused some audiences to chuckle, thus diffusing any tension that the scene in the original movie generated. When Norman is spying on Marion Crane (Anne Heche playing Janet Leigh’s role in the original) we actually hear him masturbating. This also brings us to the one difference between this version and Hitchcock’s version that made this film infamous. A friend of mine suggested that Crispin Glover would’ve been a good choice as well.
In his review of the film, Roger Ebert said that maybe no actor could’ve held a candle to Perkins in the role, although Ebert suggested Jeremy Davies, who had a memorable role in Saving Private Ryan, which was released the same year. The annoying chuckle Vaughn gives at several moments in the film certainly doesn’t help. Regardless of build, Vaughn was never able to make us fear or pity Norman the way Perkins did.
I also think of his role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Van Sant’s film could’ve shaken things up by having a physically different type play Norman, but instead he cast Vince Vaughn, who was and remains best known for playing slacker types in comedies like Swingers and Four Christmases. Hitchcock, however, had the character, played by Anthony Perkins, as a slender and sensitive man who would rather drink milk. This story would also inspire later horror classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs. Like Norman, Gein also had a fixation on his deceased mother. He was a farmer from Wisconsin who was arrested in 1957 when it was discovered that his home was littered with human remains, some of which he ate, wore, or used as house decorations. In other words, Norman has a bit more in common with the real-life psychopath whom Bloch modeled him on: Ed Gein. Bloch’s book describes him as overweight with a drinking problem. Perhaps the one that sticks out for me is the character of Norman Bates.
Hitchcock’s movie certainly does the book justice, although there are some slight differences. I recently re-read the novel by Robert Bloch. Looking back now, I’d say it was the scene-by-scene route that Van Sant took which was worse than actually remaking a classic movie.