Psycho (1998)

The 1998 Psycho is a genuine curiosity as a formal experiment even when it fails as an actual horror film, since Van Sant's decision to remake the original almost exactly frame by frame produces an experience that's more interesting to think about than to actually watch. Vince Vaughn's Norman lacks the fragile, boyish menace Anthony Hopkins brought to the role, and the color cinematography strips away the shadows and contrast that gave the original its psychological weight. Anne Heche and Julianne Moore do reasonable work within a structure that gives them almost no room to make the material their own. The film ultimately illustrates, unintentionally, just how much of Hitchcock's original worked because of choices this remake can't or won't replicate, timing, blocking, black-and-white photography, Bernard Herrmann's score reorchestrated but never improved upon. Worth seeing once purely as a study in why some films can't simply be recreated.