Bates Motel (1987)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Well,Psycho has become an Alfred Hitchcock thriller.It was released back in the 1960.There were many other sequels made such as Psycho 2,Psycho 3 and Psycho 4 that were primarily based on the Hitchcock film.Then this TV movie was released entitled "Bates Motel".It takes us to the motel wherein Norman Bates stayed.It stars Bud Cort, Lori Petty and Moses Gunn in a television film directed by Richard Rothstein.Alex West is someone who has spent time with Norman Bates at the asylum for almost 20 years.After Bates died,Alex was surprised that he was inherited the Bates Motel in Norman's will.Unfortunately,it has been vacant for many years.Alex decided to renovate it with a little help from a teenager who ran with him after he went to California.Unfortunately,Alex struggles to open the place to customers due to many mysterious events that have happened.No question that this movie went into another direction which the Psycho franchise has been known for.It lacks violence and Norman Bates was missing.It was basically a new movie that featured the motel wherein Norman stayed.No question that it isn't a classic and many fans of Psycho do not approve of it.No question that most Psycho fans always relate to the 1960 Psycho movie and not to this new movie that it was presenting that is why it has low ratings.

A psychiatrist, as some sort of mental experiment, introduces a deeply disturbed young boy to the institutionalized Norman Bates. The two become close friends and, 27 years later when Normal dies, Alex inherits the infamous motel under the condition that he reopens it again. He has difficulties raising the funds and finding reliable people to help him, but Alex's commitment and willpower are strong enough. Things get a little old-fashioned mysterious when they dig up the corpse of an old woman and the first customers showing up at the motel have ghostly characteristics. I personally think "Bates Motel" has an interesting enough concept. I love the original "Psycho" just as much as everyone else and consider it to be one of the top 3 most influential and important cinematic milestones ever made, but not to such a pretentious extent that I think it's blasphemy to spoof or re-interpret it. The idea of a spin-off, which obviously refers to the original characters and their notoriety, is both courageous and ambitious. There are some really good plot twists and additional background to the whole Bates legacy by dragging in speculations about Norman's supposedly adulterous and abusive father Jake. Practically all the reviews around here show people exclaiming: "What were the producers thinking?!?". Well, I don't blame them for this tryout. It was worth a shot. The sequences in and around the famous motel and parental house are automatically atmospheric, while Bud Cort's performance is pretty effective with a right balance between geeky and creepy. There are a lot of subtle and honorable homage scenes, like with the name board, the rocking chair and – of course – the shower. The film is still also very 80's as well, with annoying pointless musical interludes showing the progress of the construction works. The extended sub plot during the last main act of the film, involving a romance between a suicidal aerobic teacher and an emotional frat student was a bad idea. Giving a paranormal twist to the Bates legacy wasn't necessary, but it was presumably the first unfolding of a longer-running TV series that never got made.

"This place ain't no motel..it's a burial ground."What's most interesting about director Richard Rothstein's Bates Motel(..besides the fact that it was actually a proposed television pilot for a series which has something to do with why it's practically impossible to find without the proper resources)is how his script(he also wrote the screenplay)disregards the other sequels, adapting a separate story from the series where Norman never left the asylum, with amiable, lovable geek Bud Cort inheriting the Bates Motel from him because of their close relationship together inside the place. So Bud gets out, heads for Fairvale, procures a loan to renovate, and the Bates Motel is open for business once again. But, of course, such a grand decision hits a snag when an ominous presence maintains around the property. Rothstein's story puts more emphasis on the setting unlike the movies which focused on Norman Bates and the situational developments which surrounded him.There's a lighthearted side to this movie which differs from the darker nature of the series, and you can see how those involved in Bates Motel, the production, wanted to capitalize on the iconic status of Psycho without exploring the sub-textual material which made Norman such an intriguing character. Bud is as innocent and gentle as a lamb, and you never, once, consider him a threat to anyone. We witness how circumstances arise as construction continues(..such as the skeletal remains of Norman's parents, the sinister figure of a lady in black turning up to give Alex the willies)perhaps offering spooky warnings against reopening the Bates.The cast sure is an interesting group assembled. Lori Petty is her usual perky, spunky self, attempting to educate Alex(Cort)on life outside the enclosed environment he once lived. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed her interaction with Cort's Alex, because she has pep and fire and he needs that kind of strength. And, the fact that she has nowhere to go, having lived in the Bates Motel as a squatter, only provides for reason for her to vocally worm her way into his good graces, by forming a wedge between Alex and those which might take advantage of his meager nature. Moses Gunn is an old timer whose house is to be bulldozed over due to progress(..condos and suburban communities), for which Alex seeks as a contractor to help build Bates back into a properly running establishment. Gunn brings a veteran presence that actually helps things along. Gregg Henry also shows up as a bank executive who provides Alex with a loan to build the Bates back to prominence.While I do find the idea of building a continuing story around the Bates house and motel an interesting idea, without it's emotional core, Norman, I'm just not sure it could ever have taken off, despite the noble efforts of the cast to make it work.Introduced towards the end of the pilot movie is aerobics instructor Barbara(..she's introduced by a matchmaker to a young Jason Bateman), a product of three failed marriages, no children, and lost dreams, desiring to be an author, contemplating suicide, renting a room at the Bates, and you can see, conceptually, what Rothstein was up to..the series would have those from all walks of life popping up at the Bates, perhaps seeking new leases on life. Kids, right out of the 50's, show up to rent rooms and party at the Bates, but there's a specific purpose for their presence and it concerns Barbara. This is rather an intrusion into the story-line regarding Alex, but, as I mentioned before, it seems to be here as a method for future potential episodes regarding characters who might stop by the Bates. The final minutes, regarding someone responsible for attempting to spook Alex away from the Bates, is executed rather clumsily. I will say that it was nice seeing this again after all these years..I hadn't seen it since the night it aired!

I saw this just once on TV years ago. I wish I could find it somewhere on DVD, even if it didn't have extras, just so I could see it again. I can't even find it on tape to transfer to DVD on a borrowed machine.I liked that it tied up the end of the story of Norman Bates, who died and left it in his will to fellow inmate Alex in the asylum. Would be very nice to have this to add to the entire Psycho movie collection I have.The performances of the actors was good, especially Bud Cort and Moses Gunn. The hotel itself was recreated beautifully for this, complete with cobwebs, rundown, house, and all sorts of damage you'd expect for an abandoned building that hasn't been occupied in years. You just have to suspend the knowledge that the original house was burned down at the end of the fourth Psycho movie (they never did explain why the house was still standing in this one--did they put the fire out?).