Word: psycho
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bret Easton Ellis, author of Less Than Zero and a leader of Manhattan's literary brat pack, has a novel due out next February that is already causing controversy. Staff members at Simon & Schuster who have read the manuscript, titled American Psycho, say it chronicles a young Wall Street banker who is involved in sexual perversities, murders, mutilations and diverse other grotesqueries and degradations. Robert Asahina, Ellis' editor, allows, "It is a book that can be at times upsetting to read." Some are so upset that they have balked at working on the novel. But Ellis has his defenders...
Arachnophobia is given extra dimension by borrowing yet another technique made famous by Hitchcock. In Psycho and Rebecca, Hitchcock explored the results of placing psychologically-burdened characters under severe stress, forcing them to confront their worst fears. Jennings' extreme fear of spiders effectively establishes the link with the audience which makes the ensuing action tenable. Jennings' fear is believeble because, thanks to Marshall's careful direction, the character himself is so wholely believeable...
...wrote Blazing Saddles) is evident in his direction of a series of suspense-ridden false alarms. He keeps the audience off-balance by allowing it at times to come away with a laugh when expecting another gruesome killing. A typical example is the shower scene, an obvious allusion to Psycho, which comes to a far more humourous conclusion than Hitchcock's version...
...star actor -- Kevin Costner, say -- plays a character whom the moviegoer recognizes as Kevin Costner: flinty, rural, resourceful. Baldwin, so far, has enjoyed playing a broad range of roles that engage audiences' interest but not always their sympathy. Decent husband, psycho killer, corporate meanie, hero spy. Like a superior salesman, Baldwin displays his wares without revealing himself. Several directors have called him a chameleon, but McTiernan stresses that "Alec goes further. He gets his freedom by keeping you guessing about who he is. It's a function of his intelligence. Give him a toehold, and he'll scamper...
...never forget it. Especially Psycho...