The Psycho Legacy (2010/Shout! Factory DVD Set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Documentary: C+

 

 

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) remains one of the most important, imitated and influential films ever made, even to this day.  We covered it when Universal reissued several Hitchcock classics on DVD at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7745/Rear+Window/Vertigo/Psycho+%E2%8

 

 

With the Blu-ray on the way, Shout! Factory is issuing a new documentary DVD set called The Psycho Legacy.  While you could do an extended min-series on the first film, this program offers much less because it decides to include the three very belated, unnecessary sequels star Anthony Perkins did when the 1980s slice-and-dice craze kicked in.  Mildly amusing and highly unnecessary, this becomes boring as soon as they move onto Psycho II.  Needless to say the lame Gus Van Sant remake (built on the fraud that it was a shot by shot remake when it was not) and the less-talked-about Bud Cort film Bates Motel, this is for fans of the sequels with only so much to offer fans of the original.

 

But the coverage of the first film makes this worth a look, leaving the rest a desert of a curio and I was not too impressed.  If anything, the sequels have aged very badly and are a joke at best.  I like Perkins and some of the actors they hired for the sequels, but that makes no difference when their talents were being underutilized.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image varies throughout with more analog NTSC video footage than expected, while the film clips look dated. While the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has more than its share of mono and older interviews have location audio dropouts.  Extras include A Tour Of The Bates Motel, Extended & Deleted Scenes not in the final documentary, Psycho Reunion Panel, A Visit With Psycho Memorabilia Collector Guy Thorpe, Psycho On The Web, Hyaena Gallery serial killer art and a panel discussion piece with Perkins.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo