Well Norman Bates is out of the psychiatric hospital again and he's married...to a psychiatric nurse. He's at her house while she is out working and he is listening to a radio programme talking about sons killing their mothers. Naturally he calls in and most of the movie is made up of him telling the show about his life. On screen this is done through flashbacks. He warns the show that he has to kill again and we find out he has to kill his wife as she's "allowed herself to get pregnant".
He phones his wife and tells her to meet him at his mother's house. Despite her knowing his history she willingly obliges. Maybe she too is crazy.
There are a few "What the hell?!" moments that really don't need to be there.
On the radio show Norman refers to himself as 'Ed' and maybe the film should have been called 'Psycho IV: Ed, are you there?' as this one line is repeated constantly and becomes very annoying.
The actress who plays Norman's mother seems like she's reading her lines off a prompt at times and even her screaming seems unnatural. She's a very poor actress.
I wanted to see Anthony Perkins be Norman Bates again, but he only really is in the last ten minutes or so. The rest of the time he is completely wasted.
His wife really does seem crazy herself as she is very forgiving (and instantly forgiving). It's like "You nearly just tried to hunt me down and kill me and the baby with a knife but, forget about all that, I love you and our baby will love you".
I realise this was a TV movie rather than a theatrical release but it simply is no good. It is a waste of the Psycho franchise. Maybe Perkins knew his time was limited so he agreed to do it, but it's a shambles of a movie.
He phones his wife and tells her to meet him at his mother's house. Despite her knowing his history she willingly obliges. Maybe she too is crazy.
There are a few "What the hell?!" moments that really don't need to be there.
On the radio show Norman refers to himself as 'Ed' and maybe the film should have been called 'Psycho IV: Ed, are you there?' as this one line is repeated constantly and becomes very annoying.
The actress who plays Norman's mother seems like she's reading her lines off a prompt at times and even her screaming seems unnatural. She's a very poor actress.
I wanted to see Anthony Perkins be Norman Bates again, but he only really is in the last ten minutes or so. The rest of the time he is completely wasted.
His wife really does seem crazy herself as she is very forgiving (and instantly forgiving). It's like "You nearly just tried to hunt me down and kill me and the baby with a knife but, forget about all that, I love you and our baby will love you".
I realise this was a TV movie rather than a theatrical release but it simply is no good. It is a waste of the Psycho franchise. Maybe Perkins knew his time was limited so he agreed to do it, but it's a shambles of a movie.