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Edmonton Journal (01/Jul/1990) - Psycho sequel builds on original's scare power

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Psycho sequel builds on original's scare power

In just a few months, that familiar Victorian house up the hill from the seedy Bates motel will be back on our screens again — our TV screens. That's right, Psycho IV: The Beginning, the latest sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror masterpiece, is being made for television, not movie theaters.

The movie — a "prequel" to the original Psycho — once again will star Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Executive producer Hilton Green has worked on all three Psycho films. And it was written by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the original screenplay adaptation of Robert Bloch's novel. Director is Mick Garris, who did Batteries Not Included. With all that feature film talent, why do it for TV?

Apparently it just makes better sense economically.

Actually, Psycho IV is just the latest entry on a growing list of TV sequels to movies made for theaters. Mostly, they've been sequels for which there was never any overwhelming demand, or else third or fourth sequels in a series of films that was losing its ticket-selling appeal.

Presumably, the domestic (U.S. and Canada) box-office potential for these sequels isn't enough to justify the expense of making thousands of release prints and putting on the kind of national publicity campaign it takes to produce a hit film these days.

Among the feature films that have had TV sequels are: Rosemary's Baby (Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby), High Noon (High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane), The Stepford Wives (Revenge of the Stepford Wives, The Stepford Children), The Dirty Dozen (The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission and two others), The Great Escape (The Great Escape II: The Untold Story), The Amityville Horror (Amityville: The Evil Escapes), The Parent Trap (Parent Traps II & III) and The Shaggy Dog (Return of the Shaggy Dog).

Paramount's syndicated War of the Worlds TV series even began with a movie-length TV sequel to the original 1953 movie, picking up right where the movie had left off, 35 years earlier.

The new chapter in the Psycho saga actually makes a lot of sense for the network that's financing it: Showtime.

The new Psycho is the ideal attraction because most viewers are familiar with the concept and HBO won't be able to play it at all.

In the original Psycho, Norman Bates was a psychopathic murderer with a mother fixation who kept her preserved corpse in the old house on the hill. When he butchered his victims, he dressed up as Ma Bates.

Stefano's script for Psycho IV: The Beginning takes us back to Norman's childhood to show us how he got that way. The story is told in flashback by Norman (Perkins) to the host (C.C.H. Pounder) of a late-night radio talk show on the subject of matricide.

Young Norman is played by Henry Thomas (from E.T.) and his mom is played by Olivia Hussey, best known as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.

When the original film was released, director Hitchcock insisted nobody be permitted to enter the theater once the film had begun. It was part of his sneaky plan to withhold the shocking surprise ending from moviegoers. Showtime can't do that, of course, but, in keeping with the spirit of Hitchcock, the cast and crew have been sworn to secrecy, multiple endings have been filmed to fool even those involved in the production and the climax will not be shown to TV critics in advance.

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