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The Terrorphile: 50 Years of the Psycho Shower Scene

Author
Nate Yapp
Date
06-15-2010
Comments
16
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Brutal Feature: Psycho 1960
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On June 16, 1960, a film premiered in New York City that would change the face of the horror film -- nay, film in general -- forever. Psycho's effect on filmmaking is incalculable, even if you only track the influences of its most famous sequence, the shower murder. Over the past half-century, various movies and television shows have parodied, pastiched, paid homage, remade and ripped-off Alfred Hitchcock's "clean kill." I've spent the last two months piecing some of these clips together into a meta-homage. May I present to you, the Psycho shower sequence, rebuilt almost entirely from other films.

Some notes:

  • This whole project was inspired by a viewing of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. I kid you not.
  • The most slavishly devoted remake (in terms of camera angles and shot length) was from a web short called The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.
  • Gus Van Sant's 1998 "shot-for-shot" Psycho remake doesn't hew as closely to the original as the hype would have us believe.
  • Unsurprisingly, the killer pulling back the shower curtain and Janet Leigh's initial screams were the easiest clips to match. I ended up having a lot of really great shots I had to leave out.
  • Many clips had to be slowed down, not sped up as I originally believed would be necessary.
  • IMDb's Movie Connections page for Psycho led me astray more than once with "obvious" homages that really just consisted of a character who took a shower.

Thanks for posting this. I

Submitted by John W. Morehead (not verified) on Tue, 2010-06-15 20:15.

Thanks for posting this. I just read another website reflecting on how Psycho changed horror cinema. This must be the time for reflecting on this great film. This scene is especially influential as these clips indicate. Thanks again for the post.

This is absolutely amazing. I

Submitted by Brittney-Jade Colangelo (not verified) on Tue, 2010-06-15 21:09.

This is absolutely amazing. I loved every second of it.

Great editing. I liked the

Submitted by Bill (not verified) on Tue, 2010-06-15 22:48.

Great editing. I liked the little parody scene in Family Vacation with Chevy Chase and Beverly DeAngelo as well. Lot od work went into this. Good job.

This is delightful.

Submitted by Paul Bibeau (not verified) on Wed, 2010-06-16 01:51.

This is delightful.

Genius! 

Submitted by Pax Romano (not verified) on Wed, 2010-06-16 02:55.

Genius! 

Great job Nate! This is truly

Submitted by PaulB on Wed, 2010-06-16 06:00.

Great job Nate! This is truly a remarkable piece of editing. I’m sure Hitchcock would be proud.

—

Paul

A great project, wonderfully

Submitted by Max (not verified) on Wed, 2010-06-16 12:24.

A great project, wonderfully edited.

Had to blog about this, Nate! All horror fans ought to see this.

I loved it, of course! I'm

Submitted by monroevillezombie on Wed, 2010-06-16 13:15.

I loved it, of course! I'm definitely going to spread the word about this so other people can enjoy it as much as I did. You're my hero, dude!

—

Chris Gaskey
http://chrisgaskey.tumblr.com
http://www.skyemag.com 
http://www.facebook.com/chrisgaskey
http://www.twitter.com/chrisgaskey

That was a labour of love! A

Submitted by Happy Tentacles on Wed, 2010-06-16 14:20.

That was a labour of love! A delicious compendium of homage and parody. Thank you!

Aw, thanks, you guys. You're

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2010-06-16 14:56.

Aw, thanks, you guys. You're all awesome.

—

"He went for a little walk! You should have seen his face!"

Wow! Nate you have left me

Submitted by Lindsey Churosh on Wed, 2010-06-16 19:47.

Wow! Nate you have left me speechless my friend! That was an epic tribute!!! I'm sure Mr. Hitchcock is applauding from above.

—

Lindsey Churosh (Lady Ash)

http://ladyashpresents.blogspot.com/

 

 

That was "bloody" brilliant!

Submitted by Autumnforest (not verified) on Thu, 2010-06-17 20:37.

That was "bloody" brilliant!

What a great idea, and a very

Submitted by Klaus (not verified) on Fri, 2010-06-18 08:28.

What a great idea, and a very nice piece of work. This should be included as a special feature the next time Psycho is re-packaged!

Holy crap, Nate. That. Is.

Submitted by Robert Ring on Sat, 2010-06-19 12:25.

Holy crap, Nate. That. Is. Awesome.

This is really great...thanks

Submitted by Judith (not verified) on Sun, 2010-06-20 11:52.

This is really great...thanks for sharing!!!

This is a great montage video

Submitted by zombifiedblood (not verified) on Tue, 2010-06-22 09:43.

This is a great montage video of Psycho. This film may quite good for it’s famous shower scene, but people should pay more attention to how this film paved success in the horror genre. Some of the films in the Fangoria’s frightfest contest look worthy achieving similar cult status.

http://movies.ign.com/articles/109/1094621p1.html

 

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