Well I suppose this was bound to have happened sooner or later. Directed by Gus Van Sant, the original story was taken and remade into
a present day feature. The film starts off showing us Marion Crane (played this time by Anne Heche) again embezzling money from her boss and taking off to see her boyfriend.
Of course, on route she makes an unfortunate stopover at the Bates Motel, where she meets the overdly polite, but somewhat weird, proprietor Norman (Vince Vaughn) and ends up going the same way that Janet Leigh did on the original (screech-screech-screech).
Julianne Moore and Vigo Mortissen play the roles of Lila Crane and Sam Loomis this time, who go looking for Marion and get to discover Norman's secret about his mother, with William H. Macy playing the private detective, who has an unfortunate encounter with Norman's "Mother".
With the exception of a few minor elements (such as what Norman does whilst spying on Marion getting undressed, which I will not elaborate on) the film is virtually identical to the original, including the dialogue, music and intro titles. The film is actually quite good, though doesn't really improve upon the original. But should appeal to both new and old horror fans alike.
Hitchcock fans, or people considering looking into his works would be advised to check it out.
