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Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
9/07, 6/19
9/07:
On the surface, Psycho IV: The Beginning appears good, but when I think about it more, the stupider the
movie actually is.
I don't see this as a horror picture but more of a drama with some horror thrown in for good measure.
First of all, Norman Bates would've never gotten out of the insane asylum. It's the film's breaking point.
Second, no respectable psychiatrist would fall in love with a certified insane man, let alone the idea of
a marriage.
Third, if Norman Bates made confession through radio that he was planning to kill somebody, it should've
triggered a statewide alert.
Fourth, the way the movie ended had me believing Norman Bates got cured once and for all. That doesn't happen
in real life, not even after fortysomething years.
Psycho IV: The Beginning is a great idea to go back to Norman Bates' life before everything happened in
the original film. Yet it's annoying to see him be interviewed by a chain-smoking black female radio talk
host. Some respectability must be shown here.
Henry Thomas is perfect to play the young Norman Bates. I should've seen it coming before. Olivia Hussey,
who's the mother of Norman Bates, gives an okay performance. The relationship between these two loses my
attention once Chet shows up. The movie evaporates quickly thereafter.
If Norman Bates is under distress before taking a long look back at his past and some recent characters show
up, why don't the filmmakers also bring back his victims from the last three films? If the third part
emphasizes Marion Crane has been his haunting memory, why doesn't it happen, either? Another aspect that
ruins the sequel is how each victim keeps coming back from the dead to give one last stupid gasp before expiring
for good.
It's interesting to see Norman's mother coming out of the bathroom in her bedroom. Remember in
Psycho II, Meg Tilly's character was looking through the peephole with
a bathroom on the other side of the wall, but there's no private bathroom in this sequel.
All in all, Psycho IV: The Beginning isn't the beginning but the end of the franchise.
6/19:
This is not the beginning but the end of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates.
Mick Garris is a moron for a director, having done only three horror movies from '88 to '92 with all of
them being bad. Psycho IV: The Beginning is a case in point. Like Amos Poe, he's obsessed with pink
and green neon lights. The ending is an all-time stupidity.
The movie mostly ignores what happened in the last three films as evidenced by the parade of victims
confronting Norman Bates of what he did to them, the motel doing fairly well before "Chet" showed up, and
the mother's room having no bathroom to the left of her bed. To advance the story is Norman Bates narrating
his childhood during the radio talk show....zzz, it's dull. To my relief, the Ms. Spool bullshit angle has
been thrown out of the window.
Speaking of Norman's mother, I expected an old, blue-haired woman but not a semi good-looking, highly virile
woman like Olivia Hussey. Otherwise, why does she wear old women's clothes that his son dressed up in prior
to killing the females? I find it hard to believe the house looks fresh with white paint when it must have
been between five and ten years prior to Marion Crane's murder which showed dark wood sidings as seen in
parts two and three.
Norman Bates...married? Ha! Why would the psychiatrist, of all people, do that? He should be in prison or at
least will be after making a confession of the previously unknown murders he committed when he was a teenager.
If it's a known fact that Norman killed a lot of people, as readily acknowledged by the psychologist-author,
then he should've been confined permanently decades ago. Remember, the statute of limitations for murder never
runs out.
All in all, okay, that's enough, Norman...now, run along to your room and never come out again.