Video: On the 60th Anniversary of PSYCHO, 60 Actresses Perfectly Recreated the Shower Scene!

In the summer of 2020, a group of Hitchcock fans from Hungary (led by director Zoltán Vozó Végh) decided to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Psycho by reshooting the iconic shower scene starring 60 Hungarian actresses. You can see the fruits of the labor (Psycho 60) at the bottom of the article!

The whole project started as a fan study but many popular actresses happily came aboard. Even Cannes winner and screen legend Mari Törőcsik (at the age of 84) allowed the crew to film her hand for the shortest shot of the film.

There is a different actress in each shot. Some appear with their faces visible, some gave only an elbow or other body part. As the crew found out, the original scene was performed by multiple actresses as well: Janet Leigh was the protagonist of course, but in some shots, we see her body double Marli Renfro on screen. The killer was also played by women (not by Anthony Perkins); depending on the shot it was either Anne Dore or Margo Epper. So even Hitchcock needed four actresses to do this scene! Well, the Hungarians made it with 60.

This detailed remake was done frame-by-frame. 

Copying the scene perfectly created quite a few difficulties. For example: It was almost impossible to find a proper shower curtain, one that transmitted as much light as the one used in the original film. Also, the American standard for tile sizes are different than what could be found anywhere near Hungary. These are problems Gus van Sant never faced with his remake of Psycho in 1998.

In Psycho 60 the famous butcher knife was molded from plastic, the shower head was 3D-printed and the drain was also manufactured separately to match what’s in the 1960 film. The no-budget production cost the creators a lot of pocket money, but clever low-budget solutions helped such as hand-drawing the wallpaper pattern and printing it on A3-size papers.

This remake of the shower scene from Psycho with sixty Hungarian actresses debuted online on the Hitchcock Challenge YouTube channel.

For a deeper dive behind the scenes of Psycho 60, check out the video below.

Are you a Psycho fan? What did you think of Psycho 60? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.

Share: 
Tags:

Categorized:

Sign up for The Harbinger a Dread Central Newsletter