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 Sam’s bare ass (followed by a reverse shot of Marion looking approvingly in its direction). There are also two significant additions in Van Sant’s version, which reflect our contemporary comfort with onscreen sexuality. The psychologist’s ending speech removes all the (outdated) references to Norman Bates being a transvestite.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 Heche’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 Sant’s narrative modernization in the 1990s. Van Sant’s Psycho retains so much of the original that it can be a challenge to find more minor alterations. The logic behind these intentions–and the ways in which Universal marketed the film as aiming for a platonic, but infallibly impossible level of fidelity–seem counterintuitive and misguided, given that Hitchcock’s Psycho remains embedded so deeply in Western culture’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 history’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 Sant’s interviews, explanations, intentions and ideas about his 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. This version holds up a mirror to the original film: it’s sort of its schizophrenic twin.” ( Gus Van Sant) Reflections are a major theme in the original, with mirrors everywhere, characters who reflect each other. “ Psycho is perfect to refashion as a modern piece.
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