30 years after the original "Psycho," Anthony Perkins returned to portray Norman Bates yet again. In "Psycho IV: The Beginning" a radio talk show host hears a very lurid story from caller Bates: how he grew up to become a killer. Written by the author of the original screenplay for "Psycho," the movie uncovers a new story behind Bates' character that's both sympathetic and scary.

"You've met Norman..." its tagline declared ominously. "Now meet Mother." Audiences of the original Alfred Hitchcock movie remembered the crazy, hostile voice that shouted off-camera from that creepy house by the Bates motel. But that film revealed that her son Norman killed his mother - and then schizophrenically assumed her personality. ("Mother's not herself tonight," Norman says at one point, adding "I wish you could apologize for other people.") The film's first two sequels showed Norman returning to sanity, but then slipping back into the craziness that keeps his mother's personality alive. In "Psycho IV," Norman finally described his own childhood horrors and his life with the psychotic mother.

It's a clearly dysfunctional relationship. The mother dances with Norman as though he's her boyfriend, but then punishes him for his sexuality. Locked in a closet, Norman watches her, just as he'd later watch the women arriving at the Bates motel.

Interestingly, this wasn't the original concept. The screenplay writer behind "Psycho 3" imagined the fourth film would show an entrepreneur staging mock "Murder weekends" at the Bates motel (only to discover the actor he's hired to play Norman Bates really is Norman Bates!) The original author of the book "Psycho," Robert Bloch, had written this story in "Psycho House," the second sequel to his original book.

Horror fans complained that seeing Norman's mother, even in flashbacks, would eliminate some of the mystery and the magic of her treacherous character. And in the first "Psycho" movie, Norman's mother was seen as a prudish spinster, though this film hints at a more complicated emotional makeup that would've been impossible to depict in the 1960s.

Still, the movie maintains some mystery, flashing forward to the future as a troubled Norman contemplates the murder of his pregnant wife, rather than letting her unleash a second killer onto the world. It's his memories of his mother that are shown, just as the earlier movies only showed his impersonation of her. Ultimately the reality and the scariness both lie in what's never shown, but only hinted at: the crazed logic of a madman.

And "Psycho IV" does a good job of re-creating it.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older