Gus Van Sant's Psycho

by Gus' MacGuffin

With Gus Van Sant currently on the hard road back to relevance - the gnomic, impressive achievement that was Gerry (2002) having been so closely followed by his Cannes triumph with Elephant (2003) - the time may be ripe to revisit one of his most eccentric and reviled (and very nearly forgotten) projects, his 1998 near-shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. As you may recall, the film achieved sheer ignominious failure after being extensively hyped and publicized. Not the least of the arrows it endured was the remarkable derision it received from the mainstream press, both before release, with many dismissing the idea of a remake outright, and after release, with reviewers attacking the casting of key roles (Vince Vaughan's Norman Bates coming under special fire), and one in particular attacking, of all things, the costume design. Underlying much of the enmity the movie inspired was the feeling that Van Sant had with this unlikely effort actually "sold out" to Hollywood in the wake of his Oscar-baiting Good Will Hunting (1997). Exacerbating the case against him were the statements he made in interviews to the effect that the time was right for a new Psycho that would introduce the Bates motel and so on to a new audience.

further reading: horschamp/offscreen