10 Horror Movie Flops That NOBODY Saw Coming
2. Psycho
Due to Psycho's legacy, the idea that a remake could match Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece was blasphemous.
Having said that, cinephiles were curious to watch Gus Van Sant's iteration. The esteemed filmmaker won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting the previous year, so he seemed up for the challenge. Despite Psycho's influence, the slasher genre had made major strides over the years, so it should've been refreshing to see a modern take on the black-and-white classic.
However, the real reason why 1998's Psycho was generating buzz was the fact it was a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Such a thing had never been done before, so Van Sant's project wasn't just a movie but a cinematic experiment.
But after watching, it's clear this Psycho was nothing more than a gimmick. By imitating its predecessor, it offered almost nothing new on an artistic level. Anything that was changed felt jarring, disrupting the tone. Even though Hitchcock's Psycho was dripping in tension, the atmosphere and scares here were non-existent.
Despite the $25 million budget, 1998's Psycho barely made its money back and is forever branded as a failure, financially and artistically.