Thursday, October 17, 2013

31 Days of Horror 4: Originals vs. Remakes DAY 17





Psycho (1960) vs. Psycho (1998)
Original
The movie focuses on Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who is on the run with stolen money. Due to a storm she pulls over for the night at the Bates motel.
In this motel we meet the nice, clean cut, lonely Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Bates presides over the motel and under his overbearing mother. When he meets Crane he seems to light up and be glad that someone has come to stay.
Yet … once mother finds out about the women, she makes it clear that she doesn’t like loose women. This sets up one of the most famous horror stories ever told and of course the infamous shower scene, which I consider to be one of the best scenes in not only in horror but in film history.
This film is credited in inventing the modern horror film genre and I will not argue with that. The sequels and imitators that came after this film are movies that should be missed, because none will ever achieve the standard that this 1960 original achieved in terms of terror and pace.
Remake
If you do go out and buy or rent this movie please do not confuse it with the shot-by-shot remake directed by Gus Van Zant and released in 1998. This remake was terrible, even though it was shot-by-shot, the actors couldn’t pull of what the originals did and it really came off as more of a spoof rather than a serious remake. I mean Vince Vaughn played Norman Bates.
So, which is better?
Not even a contest, the original. The remake shouldn’t have even been made, and if they had to do a remake, come up with something more original than a shot-by-shot remake.

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