Bates Motel

I was a fan of Tony Perkins and the original "Psycho". And I loved Bud Cort from the time I saw him in "Harold & Maude" on. What I came away thinking about when I saw "Bates Motel" though was, boy would this have made a great series. Also, who is Lori Petty? This was really one of her very first jobs. I followed her to the "Booker" TV series and I've been a fan ever since. Who would've thought that a Tennessee-born Pentecostal preacher's daughter would go on to be "Tank Girl"? I will always love this goofy little TV movie for keeping the But Cort flame alive and introducing me to Lori Petty. A note of trivia: Kurt Paul, who played Norman in this movie went on to stunt double for Tony Perkins in the big screen "Psycho" sequels and to guest star as the serial killer being interviewed by CCH Pounder in the "Psycho IV" cable movie.

I've been getting bugged for years for copies of this film -- since it hardly ever got played after it bombed on TV back in '87. As a piece of Psycho history, I taped it in '87 and foolishly let people know that I had a copy.... I'm so glad Sci-fi is airing it so I don't have to sit through it anymore. Made as a potential pilot for an anthology series, the movie flopped badly and a show never materialized. Anthony Perkins (Norman Bates himself) boycotted the production. Not that he really needed to, since the public hated it as much as he did....

I'd like to say this film is awful. But I can't really say that, since I've seen so much worse. But as an attachment to the Psycho films, it IS awful. It ignores the two sequels that had been made and even makes mistakes based on information from the original. Bud Cort gives a mind-numbingly dumb performance as the friend of Norman's who inherits the motel after his death. You never really have sympathy for him 'cause he just plays it so dumb. Lori Petti, who I usually love, is rather annoying as the squatter that befriends him. She does an okay job with her part, but the problem is that all the main parts were poorly written. We get more than half of the way through the movie, focusing on Cort and Petti trying to get the motel running again, and then we enter the first of the Twilight-Zone-ish stories: a woman who wants to kill herself is befriended by some strange teens. The writing and acting in this segment isn't bad, but after sitting through the Cort/Petti story, it hardly seems worth it.

There's really only one creepy segment in the film -- the presence of the woman in black at Mrs. Bates funeral (but the discovery of her corpse is nonsense, since they found her body in the basement in the original film). The whole Jake Bates story seemed like it was jammed in so they could add a few more scares, though the scares fell flat. And the black-and-white segment at the film's climax could have been great -- if they hadn't went the Scooby-Doo unmask-the-villain route -- but as another reviewer wrote, it seemed to be the inspiration for "Scream 3" (which I love, by the way).

Though the film is a piece of Psycho history, I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, except maybe fans of the actors -- even then it wouldn't get a strong recommendation....

This used to play every Fourth of July on t.v... EVERY Fourth of July! NBC's tagline: This 4th of July...Make it a scream! ( or something like that )

Saw this when it was first produced for NBC back in 1987. After a few reruns on that network it was picked up by Lifetime Cable and is now in Encore Mystery Channel's listings. NOWHERE near a classic but passable "stalker" fare if you have really, really low expectations for homogenized tele-terror.

Ironically, when I went to see Scream 3, I couldn't help but think about The Bates Motel ( And it's been years since I've seen this film! ). The similarities are shocking: Big, creepy manse as catalyst in final third of both films, extended chase scenes on staircases, Mrs. Bates' fright mask of skull and black mack ( nearly a decade before the first Scream ) and the eventual unmasking of the "killer" in both films.

It's probably crazy but I couldn't shake the comparisons. Strange. Also, though the movie was lensed way before Psycho IV: The Beginning, storywise, it easily could've been a fourth sequel.

Tame terror, with bizarre casting, but odd enough to give it a look

There was an interesting idea in this non-conventional sequel to the popular Psycho movie series by connecting ghost stories to Norman's family members and victims, but using the motel as a setting to a Twilight Zone/Fantasy Island series was so out of left field that it just couldn't have worked for more than less a season. Bud Cort plays a guy who Norman had alledgedly befriended in the sanitarium. After his death, he inherits the hotel and the property, but the ghost of old Mother Bates won't sit still for the mockery. Lori Petty, still a relative unknown, plays his pretty female friend, and unforgettable Moses Gunn becomes his benefactor in this alternate reality to the movie series. The movie bogs down on the suicidal guest sub-plot, an idea later used in the third movie installment, but it should have stuck to the ghost stories than to try and create a series.

Many years before the more recent 'Bates Motel' TV series, this television movie was made to cash in on the "Psycho" brand name and try to kick start a series. It's the kind of sequel that both ignores previous entries and fudges with the original mythology a bit. Bud Cort stars as Alex West, who'd been incarcerated at the same mental asylum as Norman. When Norman dies, he leaves the infamous motel & house to Alex. Alex, despite having been in this institution for most of his life, vows to make a go of things, helped by people like Henry Watson (Moses Gunn) and a tough talking young woman named Willie (Lori Petty). While the motel is given a flamboyant makeover, strange & supernatural occurrences take place.

For a while, this is a fairly appealing story (concocted by director / executive producer Richard Rothstein), anchored by Corts' engaging performance, although it wouldn't be for "Psycho" and Hitchcock purists. It threatens to derail upon Petty's introduction into the picture, although after a while it's clear what her purpose is, and the character becomes more tolerable. The part where it REALLY begins to derail is in the final third, where Rothstein and company waste time with a subplot about a depressed "older" woman named Barbara Peters (Kerrie Keane) and her interactions with various youngsters, including one played by a young Jason Bateman. It truly goes to pieces with the hysterical, 'Scooby Doo' type ending. (Followed by Cort breaking the fourth wall just before the end credits roll.)

When you see the makeover that the Bates Motel gets, you'll likely cringe, and realize that progress (a big theme of this tale) isn't always a good thing.

The acting is sincere enough to keep the thing watchable, along with solid performances by such familiar faces as Gunn, Gregg Henry, Robert Picardo, and Lee de Broux. Kurt Paul, who plays Norman here, was a stuntman on the second and third "Psycho" features.

Certainly worth a look for curiosity's sake, but it in no way compares to other entries in this series.

Five out of 10.