Psycho: Novels, Sequels, and Now a TV Show?

We've all seen the original film, and those of us who haven't have all heard the story in some way or form. You would be hard-pressed to find someone in this day and age who doesn't know the sordid tale of Norman Bates and his mother. However, most people have only seen the original film, or the lesser and not very interesting shot-for-shot remake made in 1998. A lot of people are unware that the film was based on a novel, and even more people are unware that the film had several sequels. Almost no one remembers the tv show, Bates Motel.

Psycho II:

This sequel, which was directed by Richard Franklin, continues the tradition of making Norman sympathetic to the viewer. In Psycho II, this is accomplished by the fact that he's in fact not the killer of the film. Every one suspects, everyone believes that he is. He's been released from the psychiatric hospital, his psychiatrist has gotten him a job at a local diner. For no apparent reason, he is allowed to live in his old house. Allowed to own, if not run, the motel. He's even got himself a girlfriend, a woman with the suspicious name of Mary Samuels.

Those who saw the first film will know this to be a clever angle, as the name that Marion Crane gave on the Bates Motel ledger was Marie Samuels.

The twist in this film, the major plot angle in it is that Norman isn't the villain at all. He's treated as such, and in that way we feel sorry for him. We hate everyone for hurting him. We want them to stop, and we want them to see that he's not bad. That he's better. That everything with Norman Bates is just fine. But it isn't fine. Because someone wants him to be "Mother". Someone wants him to pay.

Lila Crane very much wants revenge. And we don't want her to have it. We want Norman to be happy, and that has a great deal to do with the portrayal of Anthony Perkins as Norman.

Psycho III:

In Psycho III, thanks to the events of the previous movie, Norman has returned to the ways of Mother, though he seems to have managed to cobble himself together some sort of life in Fairview. Everything is better, when he isn't Mother. He's back running the motel, and he's hired an assistant. He's also taken on a job as a short order cook at a local diner. He's got a long term boarder in the motel, a former nun named Maureen Coyle. M.C. She even looks a little like Marion Crane.

This sequel was directed by Anthony Perkins, and he's clearly attempting to homage the Hitchcock style. He does a fairly adequete job of this, and it shows. In fact, the film seems to be a sort of mirror image of the original film. Instead of a cleansing shower scene, we get Maureen taking a broken and desperate bath. An attempted suicide, instead of a shower room stabbing.

A suicide interupted by Mother. A Mother who had come to kill her and when she found what she had found...well, Mother had found the one woman she was willing to let Norman have. And she saved her.

Norman is in love, and it is certainly a strange thing to see. It won't end happily, it can't end happily. Not for Norman Bates. Not here. Not now. Not yet. Not until...

Psycho IV:

Produced for Showtime, this film depicts not only Norman's current life but the events leading up to just right before the original film. Directed by Mick Garris and starring Henry Thomas as a young Norman Bates (plus Anthony Hopkins as OldSchool Norman), the film features quite a few slasher deaths. A little more gruesome than the original film, but not QUITE as horrifying as the deaths in Psycho II and III. It also features Olivia Hussey as the living, breathing, insane Mother.

Like mother like son. She never killed anyone when she was alive, but boy was she terrible. A source of abuse and terror for a young boy, it's no wonder a perfect little kid like Norman Bates grew up...a little offkilter. a little....mad sometimes.

In the current time, Norman is having a bit of a crisis of faith. He's married, in fact he's married a psychiatrist. He is pretty much cured, Mother hasn't made an appearance in a very long time. He's happy. He's happy. But that changes, and it changes fast. His type of crazy is genetic, a bit of the bad seed in him. And Connie Bates? Well, Connie Bates is pregnant.

This movie, despite the odd premise of recapping scenes we'd already heard quite a bit about over the years, was actually not that bad. Several endings were shot in order to keep the actual ending a secret, and so far no one really knows what those alternate endings were. No one really wants to, theyd pretty much take away from the actual ending.

The tale of the ORIGINAL Norman Bates ended with Psycho IV, as shortly after filming Anthony Perkins passed away. That, however, did not stop anyone from making

The Bates Motel

I've never actually seen all of this television pilot, so I can pretty much only recap what I know about it. Bates Motel was written as the pilot for a tv series, and it basically attempts to negate everything but the original Psycho. In the pilot, Norman dies and leaves his home and motel to a fellow mentally disturbed individual named Alex. Alex was sent to the same institution as Norman when he was a six year old boy, and according to the pilot, Norman raised him in the institution, despite the fact that that....would never happen in any world ever.

The only other thing I really remember was that allegedly the hotel/house was Scooby Doo haunted and starred Lori Petty.

Given the convoluted storyline and the fact that the tv series basically ignored it's own continuity, I can clearly see why it wasn't picked up for a full series. I probably still would have watched it, though. Unfortunately.

A clip from the pilot can be seen here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kVlQoy_1ljY

There is also a short film titled 'A Conversation with Norman', however it premiered once and has never been seen and is not available in any shape or form.

Psycho, Psycho II and Psycho House (The Novels)

Oh, these are quite different than the films. In the novels, Norman is a balding and middle aged man, he's not very sympathetic at all. He's pathetic, but you don't feel for him. You don't really feel bad for anyone in the novels, actually, with the possible exception of Sam Loomis who had the distinction of being screwed over by pretty much everyone in the first and second novels.

The novel of Psycho II is pretty much nothing like the film Psycho II, Norman is only really a character in the first part of the book and he ends up not being the killer in any sense of the word. The novel mostly dealt with the making of a movie based on the original novel's murders, and seemed to be more of a catharsis of Bloch's disappointment with the Hitchcock film.

Psycho House was just...odd. It involved a theme park ride being made of the hotel/house and a reporter investigating a series of murders nearby. Other than location, it seemed to share nothing in common with the original novel at all.

There is also a novel titled "Robert Bloch's Psychos", but other than the word 'psycho' and the fact that it was edited by Robert Bloch, it doesn't seem to be about Norman or having anything to do with the other books at all.