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MR. BLACK TAKES A SHOWER
Written and Directed by Nathan Tyler
Anyone who has seen Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece PSYCHO can attest to the power of the infamous shower scene. That one sequence, where Janet Lee and the audience are both introduced to Norman Bates' Mother for the first time, is the single most repeated image in horror filmdom. Homage after homage, and imitation after imitation, have gone down on celluloid in various efforts to pay respect to one of the most influential horror films of all time.
Now, it's Nathan Tyler's turn to sing the praises the maestro Hitchcock. MR. BLACK TAKES A SHOWER is just that, Mr. Black taking a shower. The short film only lasts about 5 minutes, but during that time Tyler is able to illustrate all the post-PSYCHO paranoia that has kept people, such as my aunt, unable to shower without locking the door for over 40 years. You never know when someone will walk in wearing Mother's clothes, brandishing a kitchen knife.
Does MR. BLACK live up to Hitchcock's original? Have any of the imitators? Of course not. To try to recreate the power and emotion of anything done by Hitch is futile at best. All one can really do is pay their respects and move on. In the case of Nathan Tyler, MR. BLACK is simply a loving Valentine's Day Card of a movie paying respect to the man who helped make horror legitimate. Nothing more, nothing less. I think Hitch would be flattered.