The Psycho Legacy DVD Review
The Psycho Legacy DVD Review
The Psycho Legacy DVD Review, Rob Galluzzo, Anthony Perkins, Mick Garris, Vera Miles, Tom Holland, Meg Tilly, Staci Wilson
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The Psycho Legacy is a documentary film made with care by not only people who are colleagues, friends and acquaintances of mine (the horror movie community is a small one; eventually, we all get around to meeting each other), but to be completely objective and honest: these guys are some damn good filmmakers.
That's the trick when it comes to making documentaries. Most often, these are labors of love taken on by a handful of people who really believe in the story they are telling — whether it's Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim with big screen releases, or the relatively unknown Robert V. Galluzzo going straight to disc. That love is ultimately a documentary's strength… but quite often the adoration can cause a myopic "kitchen sink" clutter and egregiously long running times. At 90 minutes, and with dozens of interviews with the films' cast, crew, writers and directors, The Psycho Legacy never gets boring. (Let me add a little caveat: I didn't have time to check out Disc 2, with over 3 hours of bonus features!)
Galluzzo took on the project of celebrating the entire Psycho legacy back in 2007 when he, as a fan, was disappointed by the dearth of extras on some of the Psycho sequel DVDs which were released in that year. Since then, he and his talented crew traveled the globe and scoured the guest lists of every horror film convention between here and Timbuktu to get exclusive interviews with Robert Loggia, Olivia Hussey, Henry Thomas, Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey,Tom Holland, Hilton Green, Mick Garris, Richard Franklin, as well as other writers and directors in the genre, including Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator), Adam Green (Hatchet), Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2), Michael Gingold (Fangoria), David J. Schow (Masters of Horror), Mike C (Icons of Fright), and many more.
The Psycho Legacy includes rare and never-before-seen interview footage with Anthony Perkins, which I found absolutely captivating. Perkins was popular in a time before there was such an obsession with celebrity/video, so relatively speaking we didn't see him all the time. I remember catching him on a few talk shows, but I've never seen him talking so much about Psycho, Norman Bates, or himself as a director (of Psycho III). (Trivia tidbit: Did you know that Perkins was the screenwriter of the most underrated mystery of 1973, The Last of Sheila? That's a great film, starring Ian McShane and Dyan Cannon.) There are also some fascinating stories about Perkins (not all of them entirely flattering, which only adds depth, dimension and credibility to this dissertation).
Overall, I think this doc is a great way for Shout! Factory and Masi Media LLC to help us all celebrate the 50th birthday of Alfred Hitchcock's beloved Psycho; the DVD release of The Psycho Legacy is on Oct. 19, the same day the original 1960 film debuts on the high-definition format Blu-ray.
The Psycho Legacy DVD features the following bonus materials:
-- Extended and deleted scenes
-- Full panel discussion with Anthony Perkins
-- The Psycho reunion panel
-- A tour of the Bates Motel
-- Revisiting Psycho II: Psycho II writer Tom Holland and The Psycho Legacy director Robert Galluzzo look through the original blueprints, newspaper clippings and articles and possessions left behind from Psycho II director Richard Franklin
-- Shooting Psycho II: An interview with cinematographer Dean Cundey
-- A visit with Psycho memorabilia collector Guy Thorpe
-- Psycho on the Web
-- The Hyaena Gallery Presents Serial-Killer-Inspired Art
The Psycho Legacy Cast:
Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates, PSYCHO I-IV (archive footage)[6]
Vera Miles - Lila Crane,PSYCHO/PSYCHO II (archive footage)
Hilton Green – Assistant Director, PSYCHO/Producer, PSYCHO II-IV [7]
Tom Holland – Writer, PSYCHO II
Richard Franklin - Director,PSYCHO II (archive footage)
Robert Loggia – Dr. Raymond, PSYCHO II
Chris Hendrie – Deputy Pool, PSYCHO II
Andrew London – Editor, PSYCHO II
Kurt Paul – Mother, PSYCHO II-III/Raymond Linette, PSYCHO IV/Norman Bates, BATES MOTEL
Diana Scarwid – Maureen Coyle, PSYCHO III
Lee Garlington – Myrna, PSYCHO II-III
Jeff Fahey – Duke, PSYCHO III
Juliette Cummins – Red, PSYCHO III
Brinke Stevens - Body Double, PSYCHO III
Katt Shea – Patsy, PSYCHO III [8]
Donovan Scott – Kyle, PSYCHO III
Charles Edward Pogue – Writer, PSYCHO III
Mick Garris – Director, PSYCHO IV
Henry Thomas – Young Norman Bates, PSYCHO IV
Olivia Hussey – Norma Bates, PSYCHO IV
Sharen Camille – Holly, PSYCHO IV
Cynthia Garris – Ellen Stevens, PSYCHO IV
Michael Gingold – Editor: Fangoria
Stuart Gordon – Director
Adam Green – Writer/Director
Rolfe Kanefsky – Writer/Director
Joe Lynch – Director
Jason Allentoff – Webmaster, THE PSYCHO MOVIES.COM
David J. Schow – Writer
Dave Parker - Writer
Ryan Turek - Journalist,SHOCK TIL YOU DROP.COM
John Murdy - Creative Director,UNIVERSAL STUDIOS CALIFORNIA
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson