Psycho IV: The Beginning

PSYCHO IV has a now-married (!) Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) calling in to a radio program, and telling the increasingly concerned host (CCH Pounder) about his tragically twisted early life with his mother (Olivia Hussey). Her behavior helps us to understand how / why her son turned out the way he did. Henry Thomas plays young Norman as a tormented ball of sexual confusion.

P4 is an informative, sometimes shocking backstory, as well as a satisfying conclusion to the saga. It also offers a rather expected opportunity for Norman to be up to his old tricks once more...

If you liked the earlier sequels (with of course, the first one being inimitable) you may find this entertaining.

Tony Perkins seems deranged as ever, and there are some interesting conversations between him and CCH Pounder, (a radio shrink) as she tries to uncover what made Norman Bates the way he is...nature or nurture?... It may be genetic, but it could also have been his mother played by Olivia Hussey, a deranged woman who has an inappropriate relationship with her son.

Henry Thomas ("E.T." and "Beyond Obesession", among others) is sad and affecting as the young Norman Bates, who tries to be a good son to his mother, until she realizes he has become a man, wherein she begins to flip out.

Overall, for die-hard fans of the "Psycho" sequels.

Psycho IV is a continuation of the Bates Family history. For the most part it's a prequel to the original 1960 film. I was always kind of turned off to this one because I feel they added way too much story to the original film as each sequel came out. Psycho II introduces us to Mrs. Spool who was really Norman's mother. But then Psycho III tells us, no, Spool was just a crazy aunt of Norman's. Now Part 4 adds so much to Norman's childhood that really makes it puzzling to follow any sort of true time line or plot line. We discover in this one that Norman's mother was truly sick, more sick then we could've imagined. It's alluded to in the other sequels that Norman had a "twisted" relationship with mother, but part IV goes into explicit detail as to how twisted it really was. The story is well done in part 4, but for the most part it's kind of pointless. Did we really need to see Norman have that sort of relationship with his parent? Probably not.

We get to see Norman functioning like a normal person. He has a new house and a wife. It's him calling into a radio show to tell his life story that causes him to become unhinged. Anthony Perkins and Olivia Hussey save this movie from being a total letdown. Their performances are top notch. Psycho IV doesn't go overboard with blood, we only see Norman kill I think one or two people in his flashback to growing up. I did like that the makers of this one added to the fact that Norman did kill people before Marion Crane was attacked in the famous shower scene. I liked those scenes with the teenage "Norman". It adds to the scene at the end of the first Psycho where the psychiatrist asks if there were any missing reports on girls in the area. It alluded to the idea Norman killed before, and I like that Psycho IV explores that.

Psycho IV is a prequel to the 1960 film, and adds a lot to the already twisted back story of the Bates clan. It's a good watch, but the ending is pretty weak. Only true "Psycho" fans interested in the back story of Norman will like this one. There aren't many murders committed in IV like in the second and third sequels.

6/10

My father first rented this film in the summer of 1991. I was about ten years old when I watched it. I didn't understand most of it, but I liked it. I just re-watched it within the last few months as result of a sparked interest in both the movies and the books.

I liked how this film dove into Norman Bates's troubled past (that of course is an understatement). That was probably the best aspect of the film, not much else. I liked how Anthony Perkins once again reprised his signature role as Norman Bates after suffering that horrid humiliation from Psycho III. Olivia Hussey was wicked in this movie as Norman's mother. She must have taken lessons from Faye Dunaway in her role as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. The way she yelled at him and stripped poor Norman of his manhood was just awful. But yet, she managed to stay human in certain scenes of the movie and not be such a demon. Henry Thomas did somewhat a good job playing Norman Bates as a teenager, but his performance lacked the geeky, child-like charm that Anthony Perkins had in the original film.

As for the rest of the actors, well, most of them aren't worth mentioning. Except for Thomas Schuster, who played Chet Rudolph, Norma Bates's midnight cowboy. His character was very cocky and rude, the kind of guy you love to hate. The kind of man mom would bring home and expect you to call dad, which in Norman's case was true. But that never came to pass, if you know the story line.

Director Mick Garris is no Alfred Hitchcock. He is no Richard Franklin either. But he does manage to deliver a good addition to the Psycho series. Not as good as Psycho or Psycho II, but good enough.

This movie is excellent as far as content goes. Many things that were unexplained in the original are dealt with, and not in a way that seems ridiculous. All that happens in part IV could conceivably have happened, so that's good.

Anthony Perkins does a wonderful job of recapturing the essence of the disturbed Norman Bates, and Henry Thomas is very believable as young Norman. His performance completely illustrates the up-bringing of Norman by his unstable mother.

Good supplement to the original, I thought.