There are movie sets so key to an iconic film that they loom large in our collective memory. Undoubtedly the tall and eerie house from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is one of them. I'd wager most of you could draw a recognizable sketch of it from memory.
Well, the Psycho House--as its known--is entering its 55th year, but it's not holding up so well. So, a petition composed by one of its avid appreciators has been posted on Change.org, entreating Universal Pictures to restore the home of Norman and Norma Bates to its former glory.
Rather than some creepy location, The Psycho House was constructed in 1959 especially for Hitchcock's chilling adaptation of the Robert Bloch novel of the same name. It began as a two-sided façade, but over the years Universal built out a third, then fourth wall, and even added an actual roof so that the set could be used in a variety of productions--like the "Halloween Knight" episode of Knight Rider. In 1964, it was added to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park tour, where it was a major draw and continues to be. That's little surprise as Psycho continues to have relevance with the help of the success of the prequel series Bates Motel.
Yet no apparent maintenance has occurred in the past decade, according to this petition's starter, who explains:
"Visiters [sic] to the house today will see evidence of warped, rotting timber... Gaping holes in the woodwork with large sections of missing planks of wood... Decorative woodwork damaged and some sections missing completly from around the porch... Shingles rotten, damaged and missing from the roof... All in all it's not a pretty sight and if something is not done soon to help stop the decay, we feel it may pass a critical point of no return!" (emphasis theirs.)
So, the plea of Save The Psycho House is simply that. Its organizer(s) call on Universal Studios to restore the set and tourist attraction to its former California Gothic glory. At present, they already have over 4,000 supporters, who've signed their names to the following request:
Sign yourself if your so inclined at Change.org
