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Psycho
IV: The Beginning |
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Norman Bates is back! As a woman is hosting a radio
show with the subject of boys murdering their mothers,
a man calling himself Ed calls in and begin telling
his story. But a doctor who examined Bates after the
first murders recognize him and it turns out it's the
old, psychotic killer who used to dress up as his
mother and kill young, innocent women - and he's
planning to do it again...
Not much of a sequel, but a flashback drama where
we're allowed to experience Norman's childhood and
the events that led to killing spree. It's mostly
about his obnoxious mother harassing him, and turning
his life into a living hell. The modern Norman
calls her both good and bad, but we're almost only
allowed to see her bad sides. She's not some evil
psycho, like we've thought before, but just an
annoying bitch.
We get to see some of Norman's murders before the
whole mom-plot kicks in, and that goes on until the
climax. People expecting some paranoia horror or
gory murders will be hugely disappointed - this
film is made only to explain the previous movies, not
following them. And it's interesting, for a while,
but as soon as we've learned that Norman's dislikable
mom was the sole reason the film gets stuck and never
gets anywhere. We know he's about to poison the
mother and her slimy lover, but it takes extremely
long before we get there and that particular scene
is mostly a big "so?", and annoyingly changing
several details made clear in Psycho II.
The film begins well though, and Anthony Perkins
reprise of Norman is good even though he spends most
of the time talking on the phone in a kitchen. He
doesn't get some action until the goofy climax where
he chases his wife (yes, somehow he has a wife)
through a house in tired slasher-formula clichés.
His wife, who's apparently a psychologist, has to
be the dumbest shrink in a movie ever.
Well, back to the movie. Rounding out the cast
are cast-against-type Henry Thomas (the boy in E.T.)
as young Norman and Olivia Hussey (the heroine of
Black Christmas) as the mother. Both tries their
best but have unevenly written roles. Thomas, who
also resembles a young Perkins, successfully imitates
Norman's behavior but it's never given any
transformation into the psycho he abruptly becomes.
Hussey manages to create a very nasty character, but
it's not the woman we expected after
seeing the original film.
This so-called sequel isn't the turkey it could have
become, but it's also not the clever follow-up it
should have been. It has great intentions and holds
a good plot but the feeling of it is just tired and
bitter, as the director (Mick Garris, who later made
the dreadful The Shining mini-series remake) didn't
get a grip of the film and just gave up. This could
have worked with a better script and more intense
direction, but the result is ultimately forgettable.
For a TV movie this is surprisingly gory but the
murder scenes look cheap and are badly made.
Hitchcock was smart enough to never show the actual
stabbings, but here we see the knives stabbing the
victims and it's embarrassingly obvious fake. When
Norman's haunted by one of the victims, with a
knife in her shoulder, it looks like a toy.
This opens terrifically with Bernard Herrmann's
original 1960 score, which one of the best -
and most famous - horror film scores. It's used
often in the film, in the murder scenes
mostly notable, but the music switches on to dull,
typical TV film score after a while.
If you're dying to get the background story to
Norman Bates, you might wanna watch this but
otherwise this movie hasn't much to offer, even
if it's not all-bad. Good performances,
though not good enough to save a lame film.
Review
By: Slicer-dicer
