10 Worst Recastings In Horror Movie History

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece Psycho is one of those movies that has a much longer trail than it should have.

As well as the three sequels that followed, the picture was also subject to a remake in 1998, starring Anne Heche and Julianne Moore as Marion and Lila Crane, respectively, and, in a choice that seems baffling with the power of hindsight, Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. 

Vaughn, who’s primarily a comic actor these days, hadn’t yet filled the mould that most moviegoers expect of him now, but this was still a hefty undertaking. His performance would be directly compared to that of Anthony Perkins, who made the psychotic motel owner a screen icon. Would Vinnie be up to the task? In a word, no.

As much as he tried, Vaughn simply couldn’t capture the naive madness that made Bates so compelling the first time around. It didn’t help that the remake was pretty much identical to the original, which exposed the actor as even more of a cheap imitator. 

If only this had been a comedy send-up of Psycho instead - that would have made way more sense.