I remember the first time I watched PSYCHO— on a small TV in one of the Carriage House rooms/"dorms" of the Joe Kubert School. I'd heard about PSYCHO, but went into it cold.
Oh. My. GOD!
I cannot describe to you how disoriented and lost I was when Marion dies. The main character is… dead?! I'd never seen anything like that, didn't even know how to process it. Thankfully, that was when Arbogast enters the movie. A take-charge I-got-this-under-control sort of character I KNEW would solve the mystery.
UNTIL HE DIES, TOO!
PSYCHO left me reeling, in the best ways possible. An unforgettable movie.
Thanks for posting that memory, Karl! I'm a little jealous you got to experience it not knowing anything about it. Having already read the novel, the major plot points had been spoiled for me, but I can only imagine the shock you felt seeing it cold.
Thank you for this, Clay. Wrath of Khan, the more and more I watch, the better and better the script and entire film become. Would you say all these elements work unilaterally for all formats - comics, novels, etc?
Thanks for reading, Tom! I've never been huge into Star Trek, but Wrath of Khan sucks me in every time. Amazing what they pulled off with the resources they had.
Some of the "lessons" are definitely medium-specific (the score, use of v/o, etc.), but I think the idea that every aspect of the final product "matters" translates across mediums. The rest I think absolutely applies.
For what it's worth, the movie is a pretty straight adaptation of the novel--enough so that Hitchcock reportedly said screenwriter Joseph Stefano contributed nothing but a few bits of dialogue. The biggest obvious difference (to me, anyway) is that the Master of Suspense uses the medium of film to great effect by lengthening the shower scene and its aftermath, and that's part of the reason it's so memorable. But Bloch's short and to the point version works for the novel. The whole books is taut pulp storytelling--highly recommend reading it!
I remember the first time I watched PSYCHO— on a small TV in one of the Carriage House rooms/"dorms" of the Joe Kubert School. I'd heard about PSYCHO, but went into it cold.
Oh. My. GOD!
I cannot describe to you how disoriented and lost I was when Marion dies. The main character is… dead?! I'd never seen anything like that, didn't even know how to process it. Thankfully, that was when Arbogast enters the movie. A take-charge I-got-this-under-control sort of character I KNEW would solve the mystery.
UNTIL HE DIES, TOO!
PSYCHO left me reeling, in the best ways possible. An unforgettable movie.
Thanks for posting that memory, Karl! I'm a little jealous you got to experience it not knowing anything about it. Having already read the novel, the major plot points had been spoiled for me, but I can only imagine the shock you felt seeing it cold.
Thank you for this, Clay. Wrath of Khan, the more and more I watch, the better and better the script and entire film become. Would you say all these elements work unilaterally for all formats - comics, novels, etc?
Thanks for reading, Tom! I've never been huge into Star Trek, but Wrath of Khan sucks me in every time. Amazing what they pulled off with the resources they had.
Some of the "lessons" are definitely medium-specific (the score, use of v/o, etc.), but I think the idea that every aspect of the final product "matters" translates across mediums. The rest I think absolutely applies.
For what it's worth, the movie is a pretty straight adaptation of the novel--enough so that Hitchcock reportedly said screenwriter Joseph Stefano contributed nothing but a few bits of dialogue. The biggest obvious difference (to me, anyway) is that the Master of Suspense uses the medium of film to great effect by lengthening the shower scene and its aftermath, and that's part of the reason it's so memorable. But Bloch's short and to the point version works for the novel. The whole books is taut pulp storytelling--highly recommend reading it!