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                             "Psycho" Series
                       A film review by Andrew Hicks
                Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions

PSYCHO

(1960) **** (out of four)

No movie critic worth his fat wouldn't give this Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece a four-star rating. I appreciated it even more after seeing the three sequels (look down for reviews of those). I just wish I hadn't known every little secret of this movie's plot before seeing it. I can only imagine how much I would have liked PSYCHO without knowing beforehand the details about Norman Bates and his mother.

And if you haven't seen PSYCHO yet, forget about being surprised when you find out Norman's been dressing up as his dead mother and committing the murders himself. Hey, someone ruins it for me, I ruin it for someone else.

The set-up: A beautiful (by 1960 standards) secretary is entrusted with taking $40,000 to the bank. She bypasses the bank and heads home instead, where she packs and skips town. The guilt gets to her, though, and when night falls, she makes one final (fatal) mistake--checking into the Bates Motel. Shoot, even I wouldn't check into a motel with an outdoor sign reading "Color TV, Heated Pool, Round-the-Clock Stabbings."

Norman's mom is a little jealous of this beautiful woman stealing Norman's attention, so once she hits the shower, mama comes down with a kife and... well, wouldn't want to give _too_ much away. Needless to say, the shower scene is one of the most memorable in cinematic history, even more memorable than the fat, vomiting guy in MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE.

And don't forget the three lackluster sequels...

PSYCHO II (1983) **1/2 That psycho Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is back again, fresh out of the asylum in this, the first of three sequels to the 1960 Hitchcock classic. Bates is given a job in a diner as the cook's assistant (You've gotta be crazy to work in a diner!), where he meets an attractive young waitress with no place to stay. Say, I do believe I can recommend a place. Why not the Bates Motel? Yes, Norman takes the girl back to his old digs, but changes his mind when he finds the manager has turned the Bates into a dive for fornicating druggies. Norman protests, saying he won't stand for such immorality. Why, he remembers the good old days, when the Bates Motel was a place for peeping toms to watch women taking showers and later stab them to death.

After firing the manager, Norman and the waitress head up to the ramshackle Bates mansion, which now has no trace of "mother." Norman tries hard to be sane, but how can he when he keeps getting notes and phone calls from mommy dearest? As the girl stays a few more nights (they're platonically shacked-up, you might say), Norman begins to relapse. Soon, the old hotel manager turns up dead and guess who they point the finger at. The man dressed up as an old woman carrying on both sides of a conversation with his mother? No, the waitress.

PSYCHO II is by no means on the same level as the original (God rest its soul), but it's better than most horror movies with a Roman numeral II in the title, including the second Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street and CHILD'S PLAY movies. Still, Norman Bates has to be the wimpiest horror movie killer ever.

PSYCHO III (1986) *1/2 What's that sound I hear? Oh, that's just Alfred Hitchcock turning over in his grave. Yes, Norman Bates is up to his old (yawn) tricks again. He's been exonerated for all that went on in the second PSYCHO and is trying to make an honest living in the motel business. But he's set off again by a woman, this time a guilty ex-nun (the best-looking nun I've ever seen) who bears a striking resemblance to Norman's first shower victim from the original PSYCHO.

Also along for the ride this time are Norman's rude new assistant manager, a reporter digging up history on Bates and a group of partying co-eds (no 80's horror movie would be complete without them). As with any horror movie series, the PSYCHO films have outlived their usefulness. There's only so long we can watch a man dress up as his mother and carve people up with a butcher knife before we get bored.

PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING (1990) **1/2 This one, a low-budget made-for-TV effort, is actually an improvement over the strictly blood-and-guts mentality of the third movie. Part IV provides an origin for Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), with most of the movie centered around Bates' call to a radio talk show (yes, there still is such a thing as a radio show), the subject, of course, being men who have killed their mothers (and, naturally, bad sequels to classic movies).

Through flashbacks we learn Norman's mother was kind of weird, not to mention overbearing, with little Norman. Though the relationship was never sexual (There is a part where Mrs. Bates makes Norman take off his clothes and get in bed with her... but that doesn't mean anything), there was an abnormal level of affection with those two, so when Mother brings home a boyfriend and heads straight for the motel room with the peephole, young Norman decides something has to be done -- and fast.

Hey there, Norm, you can't solve all of life's problems with sharp knives. There are also machine guns and hand grenades to think about.

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