Psycho (1998)

What is the point? It has all the faults of the original (see my review of Psycho (1960) for those faults) with some new ones added in like the characters and the casting being worse. Vince Vaughn is the most egregious casting decision. I really didn’t like how Julianne Moore played the character. I kept waiting for William H. Macy to make a joke, the rest of the cast/characters were fine. The sound design and cinematography are an improvement but you’d expect that as it’s nearly forty years later. All the changes they made like what Norman does when he looks through the peep hole and the storm clouds intercut with the iconic murder are a huge detriment to the film. I appreciate the extra blood and that it’s in colour. The focus on Anne Heche’s character is actually really good just like the original even if it makes no sense for her to change her car. This film and the original get less engaging for the second half, pretty much from the cleaning up onwards. If you’ve not seen the original and don’t know the story then this may be watchable otherwise it’s totally pointless. I actually appreciate what they changed in the fruit cellar, that was legitimately better.