Anthony Perkins died in 1992. As such, he was very much alive when Bates Motel, a television movie that was also a pilot for a hoped-for television series, aired. I do not know what Perkins thought or might have thought at seeing others attempt to create a television series out of a post-Psycho universe. I can say that Bates Motel was not picked up for series. Having now seen it, I do not know how it would have.
Norman Bates was sent away to the Dunsmoor Mental Hospital after his gruesome crimes are discovered. Here, he befriended Alex West, an abused child who murdered his father by putting him in a laundry machine. Twenty-seven years pass, and Alex (Bud Cord) stayed Norman's friend and de facto son figure. Now, Norman is dead, and Alex gets two surprises. The first is that he is to be released from Dunsmoor. The second is that Norman left the Bates Motel to Alex.
Alex goes to Fairville, a total innocent who cannot find anything or anyone to help him get to the Bates Motel. He is so unaware of the world that he struggles with the concept of a drive-thru window. However, he eventually finds Henry Watson (Moses Gunn), an itinerant handyman who knows the Bates Motel and its dark history.
Alex decides to reopen the Bates Motel, which is surrounded now by luxury homes. He goes to banker Tom Fuller (Gregg Henry) for a loan. Fuller urges Alex to sell the property and make a nice profit off the land, but Alex wants to keep his word to Norman to reestablish the old place. Henry comes to the property after being driven off his own. Also helping is Willie (Lori Petty), a young girl who has been squatting at the Bates Motel and earning some money as a fast-food chicken mascot.
Together, the three of them work to get the Bates Motel up and running, but there are problems. First, rumors that the property is haunted scare off potential customers. The rediscovery of Mrs. Gloria Bates and her husband Jack's bodies at the Bates Motel grounds does not help. Second, the loan terms require a very quick repayment, which the naive Alex agreed to despite there being no customers. Fortunately, a last-minute arrival of a post-prom party might starve off a financial crisis. One guest who is not part of the group is Barbara Peters (Kerrie Keane). A woman with three failed marriages and no children, she is about to commit suicide when her room is accidentally crashed by young partygoer Sally (Khrystyne Haje). Will Barbara find romance with handsome young man Tony Scotti (Jason Bateman) or find that the partygoers literally know where Barbara will end up? What spectral figures go to the Bates Motel? Who is behind the other ghosts lurking about the place?
In a strange twist, a Bates Motel television series would eventually come, though it was a prequel rather than the sequel this Bates Motel was intended to be. It is surprising that the people behind Bates Motel thought that this television movie would end up going to series. Richard Rothstein's screenplay essentially puts two stories together that do not fit with each other.
On one side, you have the main story of Alex West rebuilding the Bates Motel. On the other, you have this ghost story of lost kids. Exactly how or why the Bates Motel is or would become this center of supernatural activity one cannot guess at. Bates Motel, if one considers it a pilot for a Bates Motel television series, took a turn for the supernatural that does not seem relevant to Alex West's story.
I also wonder exactly how the kids would pay for the bill given their supernatural circumstances. Granted, once we found out who was behind the spooky goings-on at the Bates Motel (one guess as to whom would benefit from such acts), the financial situation got better. Still, was the idea that strange situations would pop up every week?
As a side note, Bates Motel had this almost Scooby-Doo ending to solving the mystery of who was behind the efforts to shut them down. I wouldn't have been surprised if the villain had said that they would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for these meddlesome kids.
Bates Motel has some good performances in it. Lori Petty has that quirky offbeat charm as Willie. She is able to bamboozle Alex at every turn with her rapid-fire delivery and ability to turn everything in her favor. Another standout is Jason Bateman, whom one would not expect to find in something like this. As the shy, sensitive and ultimately tragic Tony, he has some good dramatic scenes. Haje's Sally and Keane's Barbara worked well together as the mismatched women whose lives and afterlives intermingle.
Moses Gunn was also effective as Henry Watson, the sane and sensible figure. It is a bit of a shame that the character was underused. Gregg Henry was perfect as the sleazy banker whose outward charm masks a more duplicitous plan.
Bud Cort played the part well as Alex West. He was appropriately naive and unaware of things. It takes a lot to have someone come close to convincing people that he could be held prisoner by a big chicken. That being said, there is nothing particularly interesting about Alex West, the character. I think he was trying to be a little more nervous in the Norman Bates manner. However, that is one of the problems in Bates Motel: you cannot coast on name recognition alone. Norman Bates is not part of this series. Alex West is your protagonist. What is there in Alex West that would want us to follow him?
Sadly, there is nothing. That is one of Bates Motel's issues. The otherworldly aspect that they rammed into what I presume was meant as a mystery/thriller is another. The Psycho franchise was about a serial killer. The ghosts were imagined or metaphorical. I do not think that they were meant to be literal.
Bates Motel is an interesting attempt to expand on the Psycho franchise outside of its central character. It did not work, but at least they tried. The television movie's ending has Alex West looking directly at us, inviting us to come on by. Sorry, Alex, but no one will be checking out this Bates Motel.
4/10
PSYCHO FILMS AND TELEVISION
Psycho (1998)
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