User Reviews

Anthony Perkins played Norman Bates for the last and final time. He died the following year of AIDS related illness. In this film, Norman Bates has married a nurse, Connie, and they're having a baby. Olivia Hussey played Norma Bates in flashback. Henry Thomas did a terrific job in playing a young Norman Bates. Norman calls a radio call-in-show, Dr. Fran Ambrose, where he confesses and reveals his past to C.C.H. Pounder in the role. The film returns to the Bates house where it all began. The older Norman revealed the truths about his relationship with his mother. A woman he loved and hated at once. Olivia Hussey is memorable as the mother in the film. The film is in the last of the Psycho series besides Bates Motel. In the end, audiences couldn't get enough of Tony Perkins and Psycho. An actor like Tony Perkins is sorely missed today even decades later.

There's not a whole lot to say here. I finally watched Psycho IV...yes I'd been avoiding it because most people told me it sucked. And while I wouldn't go so far as to call P-IV a great movie (it's an adequate send off for the beloved series), it is better than I thought it would be. There were some interesting scenes here that shed some light on Norman Bates' transformation from a disturbed and somewhat chemically imbalanced teenager, into the psychotic monster that we see in films I, II, and III. One of the best parts of this movie is the return of Anthony Perkins as the adult Norman. And Henry Thomas does an admirable job as Norman the teenager. But the best performance in the movie, or at least a performance just as good as Perkins', comes from Olivia Hussey as Norma Bates. She effectively plays the part of Norman's very abusive and overbearing mother. Even someone who does not have homicidal tendancies can be pushed past their breaking point. So it stands to reason that a psychotic like Norman, when pushed past his breaking point, turns to serial killing...a murder spree that included the killing of his own mother. One can almost see why Norman turned out the way he did, and no, that is not a justification for killing people. It's simply just the way it is. Psycho IV surprised me. I was prepared to watch this final chapter, and then, more than likely, conclude that it was pretty bad. Well, I watched it, and I can honestly say that it isn't a bad movie. It's actually a pretty decent one, and a admirable addition to the Psycho saga.

Not content with being completely redundant (We never really needed to see the story of Norman Bates growing up- it is the kind of thing best left as back-story) this sorry excuse for a sequel does what it does very badly.

The ham-fisted handling of Norman's flashbacks almost spoils the previous movies. Olivia Hussey is woefully miscast as Mrs Bates and the way the character is so overtly sexualized in the movie really comes across as tacky and clumsy. She does not seem like the Mrs Bates we had come to expect from the previous entries (Not to mentioned too young and with an inappropriate accent) in the series and her crazy turns are very unconvincing. Everything about the flashbacks is clumsy and cheesy, right down to the laugh or groan inducing picnic sequence where Norman tells of the happy times with his mother- I almost expect to see them dancing across a flowery meadow or see them feeding some deer. The new boyfriend is a one dimensional jerk, a caricature of the evil step dad. The way he is portrayed you half expect to see him twirling his mustaches or torturing kittens any minute. The pivotal scene of Norman poisoning his mother and her lover is way over the top and extremely cheesy, complete with cheap 'I'm not dead yet' moments and melodramatics. The only effective bit in the sequence is the part when Norman looks unflinchingly at his mothers face as she slips away. The other murder scenes seem completely gratuitous and contrived- Woman throw themselves at Norman (When did he become such a chick-magnet), he kills them, we've seen it all before and these scenes aren't all the necessary to movie and seem like they have been shoehorned in to get some more bloodshed happening. On the positive side Henry Thomas does give a decent performance as the young Norman Bates.

The modern day material is pretty awful too. Norman's recovery and marriage to his Psychiatrist, and in such a short period of time, is utterly unbelievable and it is also very hard to take that he would be telling his story and feelings on a live talk-back radio show given the character. The staff at the radio show are smug and obnoxious, although we are supposed to root for them over the WASPish psychiatrist who of course presented as buffoonish and uncaring. Fran's decision to try and talk Norman down rather than let professional handle things or get the police really does come across as dangerous and reckless but the audience is pushed to consider her decision the right thing to do as we are presumably meant to identify with the rebel who buck's the system and goes with instinct or something. It also seems unbelievable that the police didn't actually catch wind at all of Norman's supposedly murderous intentions despite the fact this was a live broadcast.

The end is awful too. The movie wants to have it both ways with Norman returning to his ways and stalking his wife in a derivative and ineffective sequence in the old Bates house and still have Norman's uplifting recovery. It fails to do both and Norman's cathartic decision to not kill his wife comes across as meaningless and silly. He was ready to kill her up until the last minute but then suddenly everything is okay (The silly Norman confronts the demons of his own past in the burning house sequence doesn't really cut it and is as hokey and lame as this movie gets). The wife is of course cuddling up to good old Norman only hours after he almost killed her and their unborn child like everything is suddenly okay now. She must surely be the most forgiving person on the entire planet. Her marriage to Norman seems ridiculous but the fact alone that she gets over the fact her husband was on the verge of stabbing her to death because he didn't want to have a kid, let alone the quickness of her response is beyond absurd. The movie depicts Norman as still being a dangerous crazy so as to prop up the lame story but then goes the happy pop-psychology route.

Clumsy writing, direction, acting and plotting sink this unnecessary sequel, which only succeeds is cheapening the memories of the original (And to a lesser extent the other sequels even).

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.

I liked to see anything Perkins is in. This movie has holes bigger than "The Grand Canyon". If your a "Psycho Fan" then you will notice the holes. The movie is a bore when Anthony Perkins is not on screen. I think that story for "Psycho IV" that Anthony Perkins came up with (but the studio passed on) would of been much better. ( Norman escapes and now is killing people again at the Bates Motel at a weekend of horrors show). I read the book about Anthony Perkins and I had a new-found respect for this movie. This was a made for Cable TV Movie (SHOWTIME). I think if they would of spent a little more money and came up with a better ending this might of been a great Swan Song to Norman Bates.

Norman Bates is back! As a woman is hosting a radio show with the subject of boys murdering their mothers, a man calling himself Ed calls in and begin telling his story. But a doctor who examined Bates after the first murders recognise him and it turns out it's the old, psychotic killer who used to dress up as his mother and kill young, innocent women - and he's planning to do it again.

Not really much of a sequel, but a flashback drama, where we get to see Norman Bates as child and we finally get to meet the mother and see what all the fuss about, I mean this is the woman who drove Norman into becoming the murderous psycho-pathic cross-dresser so it's only fair that we finally get to meet her and I'm glad to say I was please. It's mostly about his obnoxious mother harassing him, and turning his life into a living hell. The modern Norman calls her both good and bad, but we're almost only allowed to see her bad sides. She's not some evil psycho, like we've thought before, but just an annoying bitch.We get to see some of Norman's murders before the whole mom-plot kicks in, and that goes on until the climax. People expecting some paranoia horror or gory murders will be hugely disappointed - this film is made only to explain the previous movies, not following them. And it's interesting, for a while, but as soon as we've learned that Norman's dis-likable mom was the sole reason the film gets stuck and never gets anywhere. We know he's about to poison the mother and her slimy lover, but it takes extremely long before we get there and that particular scene was extremely unsatisfying and the final scenes of this movie was absolutely pure and utter crap and pointless

Okay this movie isn't all bad, it's not a total disaster it could have easily become but it's also not the clever follow-up it should have been. It has great intentions and holds a good plot but the feeling of it is just tired and bitter, as the director (Mick Garris, who later made the dreadful The Shining mini-series remake) didn't get a grip of the film and just gave up. This could have worked with a better script and more intense direction, but the result is ultimately forgettable.

Again Anthony Perkins is the best actor in this movie despite not having much to do. Henry Thomas who plays the young Norman Bates does try his best with the uneven script and even resembles a young Perkins, successfully imitates Norman's behaviour but it's never given any transformation into the psycho he abruptly becomes. Olivia Hussey (the heroine of the far Superior Black Christmas) does what she can at playing Norman's mother, she does create a very nasty character , but it's not the woman we expected after seeing the original film and finally CCH Pounder did an okay job at playing the radio DJ, she and Norman did manage to create some chemistry together.

All in all, an interesting idea at creating a background story to Norman Bates's past but sadly disappointing and could have been so much better. I'm actually glad they didn't continue the franchise after this movie, this is actually the last sequel up until the remake which isn't really a sequel And i'm sad to they that this franchise ended on a whimper and is well and truly dead.

Don't expect too much. This is little bit documentary style movie, We don't know the flash backs of Norman Bates. Watch the movie is very good. Prequel scenes ending is very intense. Climax is save the movie. Must watch for psycho fans.