‘The Office’ star Creed Bratton channels Norman Bates in ‘Psycho’ music video (exclusive)

Creed Bratton is embracing the creepy.

In the new music video for Michael Bradford’s track “Psycho Prelude” — which Entertainment Weekly can exclusively debut — the Office star channels Anthony Perkins as he delivers iconic lines from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

The song, which released on the 65th anniversary of the classic proto-slasher, incorporates Bernard Herrmann’s chilling score from the film, and is entirely instrumental aside from Bratton’s occasional deliveries of Norman Bates’ lines like “A boy’s best friend is his mother” and “We all go a little mad sometimes.”

Bratton says that he drew from a number of inspirations while collaborating with Bradford. “It’s probably a juxtaposition of my own interpretation of what an evil, scary voice would be, spiced with a little Hannibal Lecter and, of course, the aspect of the feminine mother,” he says. “It’s a sick stew.”

A prolific multi-instrumentalist who has worked with Madonna and Ringo Starr, Bradford says that he “fell in love” with Herrmann’s compositions as he found his own musical footing. “His work had such a jazzy, rhythmic feel beyond just orchestral, and his range was incredible, which really spoke to someone like me who grew up on freeform radio,” Bradford explains. “That’s the feel I wanted for ‘Psycho Prelude.'” 

Bradford’s menacing new track — the first from his forthcoming album The Man Behind the Curtain, set to release later this year — features strings that sound exactly like the original movie soundtrack, but the musician says that he didn’t utilize the original recording in his song. “I reconstructed the film score and added in hip hop beats and disjointed voices as if they were instruments, pulling all kinds of incredible elements from different parts of the musical spectrum together,” he explains.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

The musician also highlights the emotion that Bratton delivered in his performance in the song. “What Creed brought to this role is a very beautiful interpretation of the nature of Norman Bates,” Bradford says. “What Creed tapped into was the sadness of Norman.”

In the video, which also stars Juliette Beavan, Bratton wields kitchen knives, strokes a baby doll with makeup smeared all over his face, and, perhaps in a nod to the final shot of Hitchcock’s film, occasionally directly looks down the barrel of the lens of the camera, all with intense menace.

Bratton sums up the track’s unique sensibility. “It’s such a different take on the original score,” he says. “Beautiful but also hypnotic, like a macabre meditation.”

Watch the full music video for Bradford’s “Psycho Prelude” above.