'Psycho' on an inflatable screen, with batmosphere


Movies are usually a place to get away from the great outdoors, not as something to do there.

Orlando is a good place for flicks al fresco, though and, hands-down, the best I've ever seen was Psycho at Harry P. Leu Gardens thanks to nature providing a little extra atmosphere.

For their “Date Night Movies” Leu Gardens puts up an enormous inflatable screen in front of the enormous working flower clock, which is one of the garden's daytime highlights. On Psycho night nature went the extra mile: storm clouds loomed, providing the additional suspense of  whether we'd get to see the film at all - or just get soaked during the shower scene.

Neither happened. But...there were the bats. 

On a cool October night, live bats swooping and diving in the sky above you, close enough so you could see the bones in their wings….well, if there had been a full moon and baying hounds the set-up for a horror film could not have been more perfect.

Leu Gardens must have those Spinal Tap speakers that go to 11, because when the ice cold strings of the Bernard Hermann’s score started it was so loud I nearly went right through those rain clouds. But the enormity of sound and the screen engulf you in the movie. I’ve probably seen Psycho 20 times I’ve never been more engrossed and even noticed things I never had before. At the end, for example, I caught an uncredited role from someone who would become a beloved sitcom star, a side note I had never noticed in all these years.

Of course I’m not going to tell you who. That would ruin the fun of finding out for yourself. I’m giving you an excuse to watch Psycho here, as though anyone needs one - a damn near perfect film.

Hopefully your Psycho experience will be as good as mine at Leu Gardens but I doubt it. I kind of wish I could watch all movies outdoors on a giant inflatable screen from now on. 

The bats would be optional. 


(Next month at Leu Gardens: Double Indemnity)

(Psycho pics are mine, taken off the giant inflatable screen- imagine Norman Bates 100 feet high - with bats flying over his giant head. Too good. )

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