MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1998) Discussion > Arbogast's death and the cow

Arbogast's death and the cow

posted 7 years ago by Popcorn Kernel (2368)
1 reply | jump to latest

When Arbogast gets stabbed at the top of the stairs, there are two quick images flashed before he starts to fall down the stairs.
1. A naked blonde woman seductively curled up on a bed
2. a blurry, grainy, image of a cow on a road. It almost reminded me of some old documentary footage, like a nuclear test film.

These images were not in the original when Arbogast was killed, (or if they were, they must have flashed by much quicker at a subliminal speed). So I m assuming that Van Sant added those images.
What was the meaning of these? I thought it was supposed to be like his life passing before his eyes, just before he died. And maybe the woman was some past lover of his?
But what the heck is the meaning of the cow?
Is that from the books?

[–] Stringey (260) 4 years ago

You know when I first saw this i had the impression these images were from arbogasts mind but I think they were not I think it's possible these were images going through Norman's mind as Norman was looking at arrogant. Images of events from his past. The cow could have maybe been a memory of him running down the animal in the road on a rainy day. It's plausible he would have liked to torture animals and see them die at points in his life. The woman you could say could have been from either a porno he saw or maybe more likely a woman he killed. Maybe a prostitute.