Apparently Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates scares the hell out of me.

12 years ago, after I saw Gus Van Sant’s remake of Psycho, I had a terrifying dream. I dreamt they were filming the movie in Springville. They were using this old house on Springville’s center street as the Bates’ house. A couple hundred spectators, including me, were gathered out on the street watching them film.



The scene they were shooting isn’t one in the movie. It was a scene where Norman Bates, played by Vince Vaughn, was outside on this second story balcony with a woman. In the scene, he is supposed to slit the woman’s throat. I suddenly realized that Vince was actually going to kill this woman, not just act it out. I started telling people around me that we have to stop him; that he is really going to kill that woman. Everyone just kind of laughed at me. I suddenly looked up, and Vince Vaughn was looking me right in the eye. He knew that I knew he was going to actually kill her.



I started running, because I knew that Vince was going to come after me. The dream changes scenes and I’m running through the cherry orchards by my house in Mapleton with Vince right behind me. I’m terrified, knowing he is going to kill me, and then I woke up.



That dream was so real it has stuck with me for years. I can still picture scenes from it very clearly. It has made me laugh a few times because I kind of like Vince Vaughn. I really liked him in the Wedding Crashers, so I think it’s pretty funny that I dreamt him being so terrifying. And as for the 1998 remake of Psycho, I didn’t really like it that much. I think the original is much better, and I really can’t stand Anne Heche, so I’ve only seen it the one time.



A couple of nights ago I’m in bed. Cam is sound asleep next to me and I’m flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch while I tried to sleep. I saw that Psycho was on AMC, so I went to that channel, and saw it was the 1998 one. I saw maybe 15 seconds of it and changed it to something else. I would have stayed on it if it was the original. That night I have another nightmare about Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates.



I was home alone in the kitchen. Suddenly, Vince Vaughn, as Norman Bates, slowly walks up the stairs. I’m watching him and I grab a butter knife that was on my island in front of me. He and I struggle and I somehow get him pinned to my island with one arm, while I’m trying to stab him in the neck with the butter knife. It’s really not working; I’m mostly just scratching him. So I somehow manage to open the drawer where I keep the real knifes, and I grab one and start stabbing him. Kind of like the shower scene in the movie. It works and he falls to the ground. I bent down, like an idiot, to make sure he was dead and his arm moved and bumped mine, and I woke up.



What actually happened was Cam’s arm bumped mine. I woke up gasping and sat right up, which startled Cam and woke him up. He asked me what happened and I told him I was having a nightmare and he accidentally bumped me and it startled me awake. He apologized, and turned over and fell right back to sleep, and I fell back asleep soon after.



So, why in the world does Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates apparently scare me so much? Why did I have part 2 of a dream I had 12 years ago after only seeing a few seconds of the movie?