Harefooted Halloween: Psycho IV: The Beginning

What I Liked: I don’t think I liked much.  Let’s see, uh, Henry Thomas (E.T.) who plays young Norman Bates is alright.

What I Didn’t Like: Can we skip to the next section?

Overall Impressions: The story they came up with for this is awful.  The events of Psycho II and III are ignored which is fine but going back to when Norman was a teen and being abused by his alive mother (Olivia Hussey (Ice Cream Man)) isn’t all that interesting.  We already know they had a fucked up relationship so this doesn’t shed any new light on the character.  The whole thing builds towards Norman poisoning his mother (which is done by iced tea instead of hot tea which Psycho II used, is this some kind of jab at that movie?) but, again, we already know this so the big moment isn’t nearly as dramatic as the film thinks it is.

Plus the intercut scenes that take place in modern day with Anthony Perkins are the worst.  Having Norman Bates call into a radio talk show to discuss his past murders isn’t an idea I can get behind.  Sure, a lot of serial killers want the credit for their work but Norman was never a boaster so this idea doesn’t fit.  Also Perkins does not give a very good performance.

And the ending where complete redemption is attempted makes no sense to me.  This is something that keeps coming up in the series too.  Each of these films pitches the idea that Norman can be cured and if we only give him another chance we’ll see that he’s a changed man.  You know, forgive and forget the numerous grisly murders he committed, he owned up to them what’s the big deal?  With crimes this serious I have a real hard time believing that this person will ever be able to re-enter society and live a somewhat normal life.  This may sound harsh but the guy can’t be trusted on that kind of unsupervised level ever again.

I don’t understand this compulsion in the horror genre to give us an origin story way down the road when the series has run out of gas.  Leatherface, Hannibal Rising and Dracula Untold are just a few in the last bunch of years that went this route.  They’re all unnecessary after thoughts that make these characters less scary because they’re not nearly the threat they will eventually become.  They pale in comparison to when they’re fully formed so there isn’t a need to watch a watered down version.  Anyway, Psycho IV: The Beginning is another one to add to the pile.