Halloween 2021: The Status of Psycho
Last year in October of 2020, Psycho got a re-release to American cineplexes (at a time when new films were still not much being released) as the "60th Anniversary of Psycho -- Director's Cut."
The 60th Anniversary was correct. 1960 continues to fade into the past of a previous century, and oh how far we've come.
The Director's Cut was pretty much a correct monicker. Hitchcock operated in an era where directors didn't much HAVE Director's Cuts, though we know that Orson Welles had a couple of movies where scenes were cut for release and a certain number of other old films had additional material later discovered (Garland's A Star is Born, for one.)
The Psycho Director's cut -- also known as the German version (because this version was shown in Germany, ha) had perhaps 20 seconds of new footage over three scenes -- more of Janet Leigh's back and side-boob as Perkins watches her strip for the shower; a longer shot of the blood on Perkins' hands as he moves to the sink to wash it off; and two additional stabs down on the unseen Arbogast on the floor. So "welded" is Psycho -- frame by frame -- in our minds that those mere seconds WERE "something new" -- and I'm still not sure that the Arbogast stabbing was "real" -- it looked like a repeat frame to me.
On my personal list of favorite films over my lifetime, I gave "Psycho 60th Anniversary Director's Cut" my favorite film of 2020 for a few reasons: (1) there was literally nothing else to choose from --only about 3 films were released in 2020; (2) I saw it at a theater(risking COVID at a late age); and (2) those 20 seconds made it a new movie.
The 2020 release of Psycho was in October, I believe, to tie into Halloween 2020. This has been done before with Psycho to cineplexes(an October release) and certain individual theaters have been known to play Psycho on Halloween day. I once saw Psycho at a college on Halloween day.
Psycho also got its share of Halloween day or night showings on TV over the decades.
And Psycho usually gets mentioned in Halloween articles about "the great horror movies." Funny how many of those movies came AFTER Psycho -- Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, Halloween, The Shining, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street.
It is as if -- in purposeful ignorance of the Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolf Man era of movie horror...Psycho is seen as "the first year of the modern horror film." As far back as we can go.
I write of all this to note that...in 2021...it looks to me like Psycho is a bit "out of the game."
No theatrical release. No streaming or cable showings that I can find.
And I've read a few articles about "movies for Halloween" that do NOT mention Psycho.
Oh, well. I'm sure it will rise again. Maybe at the 70th Anniversary. Maybe through some new documentary or biopic. (How about: The Forgotten Man: Arbogast.)
It remains interesting to me after all these years, that while much of Psycho IS horror stuff(the shots of the mansion on the hill; Mother's zombie face, the two murders) a lot of Psycho is NOT the stuff of traditional horror(whatever that is.)
There is nothing supernatural in Psycho. Which makes the movie kind of great to me. Its a very plausible story. Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen all relied on Satan(and his corollary in God) to "sell" the horror. Carrie just flat out pushes "magic" (oooh, Carrie can make objects -- like knives -- fly through the air.) The Shining may not have gone for Satan or God, but it did go for ghosts and otherworldly behavior.
Even a supposed "straight slasher" -- Halloween -- elected to make ITS Mrs. Bates(Michael Myers) a rather indestructible phantom rather than a human being. Bullets and other fatal assaults(like fire) don't stop him. He's a magical being. To me, that's what makes ALL the sequels rather boring. He's unstoppable. In every movie(from trailers I've seen) Jaime Lee Curtis et al vow to "kill him for good this time." And he never dies. Boring.
Coupled with Psycho's lack of the supernatural is its emphasis on a "realistic crime plot" that keeps bumping into Gothic horror. Marion is an amateur thief. Arbogast is a professional detective. Her crime and his investigation are the stuff of a "normal" thriller - and so we BELIEVE in this movie even as the two of them meet horrific fates in creepy locations.
Its a matter of FLAVOR, I think. Marion and Arbogast...and Norman...and Sam and Lila...and everybody...seem so real, witty and accessible that Psycho is just an easy movie to return to.
I also like the "small town, backwater Americana" of Psycho. I like how the Bates Motel is established as ONLY 15 miles from Fairvale. This is a cruel fact when Marion decides to stay the night at the motel -- she was thisclose to her lover. It makes for an ironic Saturday night of first Arbogast, and then Sam, driving the 15 miles for differing ends (Arbogast: horrifyingly murdered; Sam, mysteified by Arbogasts absence.)
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