The perceived failure of Psycho 1998 in critical circles is beautiful in a way, however, like a scientific experiment yielding unexpected results. The film was doomed before anybody watched it it was a spectacular failure by simply existing. The film was an experiment unparalleled in film history, proving to Roger Ebert that a shot-for-shot remake is вЂњpointlessвЂќ and that вЂњgenius apparently resides between or beneath the shots, or in chemistry that cannot be timed or counted.вЂќ Film critic and Hitchcock expert William Rothman went so far as saying вЂњthe more I dwell on van SantвЂ™s Psycho, the more it can seem that cinema вЂ¦ has run its course, that the art of film is declaring bankruptcy.вЂќ Everything, including direction, the previously described changes, and performances were scrutinized mercilessly there was no way in hell Anne Heche or Vince Vaughn, especially, could ever live up to the performances of Janet Leigh or Anthony Perkins. But once you see Psycho 1998, itвЂ™s also kind of impossible not to. Outside of Freudian analysis, why should a morality play that alludes to illicit sex lead to something as horrific of a demise as MarionвЂ™s murder and then become so popular as to turn into a sub-genre itself (slasher films)?ДЇew people are willing to openly reconsider PsychoВ 1960 in relation to Psycho 1998, which is a bit of a shame. But its wonky translation also shed light into how Psycho вЂ™60 might also have been more problematic than we once thought. To screw a lover in a cheap motel during lunch break in the 1990s is what jaded adult characters do now in films about mid-life crises, and it doesnвЂ™t typically propel them into a downward spiral of immorality or horror-film doom. Deviancy seals her fate itвЂ™s part of the narrativeвЂ™s thematic essence. MarionвЂ™s love affair with SamвЂ“premarital and illicit in the 1950sвЂ“is the inception of her continued bout of aberrant behavior, what changes her bra from white to black, what lures her into the trap of a twisted individual. Modernizing PsychoВ 1998 reveals just how poorly the story translates into a 1990s setting. These include an additional, extended shot of Norman Bates after the point-of-view shot through the wall-hole, during which he can be heard masturbating, and another of SamвЂ™s bare ass (followed by a reverse shot of Marion looking approvingly in its direction). There are also two significant additions in Van SantвЂ™s version, which reflect our contemporary comfort with onscreen sexuality. The psychologistвЂ™s ending speech removes all the (outdated) references to Norman Bates being a transvestite. The film is not only in color, but vividly so Anne HecheвЂ™s Marion Crane sports tacky orange, pink and green-colored outfits, nail polish and brassieres as if she recently escaped the repressed hysteria of Pleasantville. There are a few noticeable differences, particularly the script, which mostly reflects Van SantвЂ™s narrative modernization in the 1990s. Van SantвЂ™s Psycho retains so much of the original that it can be a challenge to find more minor alterations. The logic behind these intentionsвЂ“and the ways in which Universal marketed the film as aiming for a platonic, but infallibly impossible level of fidelityвЂ“seem counterintuitive and misguided, given that HitchcockвЂ™s Psycho remains embedded so deeply in Western cultureвЂ™s psyche, as to render the necessity or usefulness of an exact remake obsolete. Perhaps one is tempted to do the same with the remake itself, a critical and financial flop that baffled and angered many critics and viewers, not merely because an artist was remaking one of film historyвЂ™s most beloved works, but because Van Sant did not so much remake the film as he did reshoot it, virtually shot for shot, line for line, in a self-proclaimed desire to retell the story for younger audiences.

It is perhaps wise to simply erase all memories of Van SantвЂ™s interviews, explanations, intentions and ideas about his 1998 remake of Alfred HitchcockвЂ™s Psycho.

This version holds up a mirror to the original film: itвЂ™s sort of its schizophrenic twin.вЂќ ( Gus Van Sant) Reflections are a major theme in the original, with mirrors everywhere, characters who reflect each other. вЂњ Psycho is perfect to refashion as a modern piece.

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