Reviews & Ratings for
Bates Motel (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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26 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
What in the name of Sanity!?, 25 January 2006

Author: gatecrasher258 from England

I cannot believe some of these other posts, which do a fairly shaky job of damaging this movie's credentials and storyline itself. If anyone would be spinning in their grave, it would be Alfred Hitchcock, in seeing the amount of negative views and opinions about one of his greatest ever masterpieces.

The plot involves a man whom was befriended by Norman Bates shortly after being admitted to a mental institution, and 27 years later when Norman dies, he leaves the entire Bates Motel estate to him in his will... requesting that he have a second chance in life. Soon enough strange and chilling things begin to take form, and he starts to see a ghostly image of Norman's dead mother in the window of the old house.

I feel this movie has been attacked because of one simple fact. It lacks any gore or violence, and come to think of it - nobody is killed either. People expect to much dumb shock-horror type story lines these-days, without paying attention to other area's of the plot. If you cannot sit down and watch a movie without feeling the compulsion someone has to have their head blown off or their gut's ripped out I pity them.

An excellent, well esteemed effort, which was unfortunately prevented from going any further by a bunch of selfish fools.

Hitchcock would be proud.

21 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Something different, 18 March 2009

Author: gazzalere from United Kingdom

As someone who really loves his horror films but will delve into other genres this film is something I went into watching with an open heart. The name never said Psycho to me or anything to do with the actual Psycho franchise but then again it doesn't need to be a part of the franchise because it's got a completely new story of its own. Let's move onto the cast, the cast is a bit of a weird line up but then again I think that's what made me continue watching it and yes it's actually got a story to it and tries to take helm from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho franchise. I know I'm not really reviewing this movie and explaining much about it and that's because I don't really know what to say, what I will say is…. If you can grab a copy of this very rare film just watch it for the way it plays out, you may just enjoy, I know I did, maybe you'll book a night at the Bates Hotel just like myself.

20 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
I want this released on DVD!, 27 June 2009

Author: loripetnut-1 from United States

I saw this just once on TV years ago. I wish I could find it somewhere on DVD, even if it didn't have extras, just so I could see it again. I can't even find it on tape to transfer to DVD on a borrowed machine.

I liked that it tied up the end of the story of Norman Bates, who died and left it in his will to fellow inmate Alex in the asylum. Would be very nice to have this to add to the entire Psycho movie collection I have.

The performances of the actors was good, especially Bud Cort and Moses Gunn. The hotel itself was recreated beautifully for this, complete with cobwebs, rundown, house, and all sorts of damage you'd expect for an abandoned building that hasn't been occupied in years. You just have to suspend the knowledge that the original house was burned down at the end of the fourth Psycho movie (they never did explain why the house was still standing in this one--did they put the fire out?).

19 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
I liked it, 27 September 2008

Author: pauls143 from South Carolina, USA

I don't know what a lot of these posters are bitchin' about. What the H E double hockey sticks did they expect from a pilot for a TV series? Did they really to see Norman Bates on social security still running around in drag knocking off people in the shower or something of the like? Wouldn't that get boring after an episode or two? With that being said, I thought the creative way they blended the Bates story with some new mystery and a ghost story set a pretty good stage for some decent TV. Guess it was all that closed mindedness and lack of vision from the pubic that stopped that from happening. It's bad too, we could have had another 80s cult show.

17 out of 20 people found the following review useful:
Must Release To DVD or VHS, 6 November 2006

Author: emenon from United States

This was as scary as the first Psycho movie made in 1960, with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles and John Gavin. It was full of suspense. A young guy Bud Cort, took Norman Bates wish, after his death in his will, to have the Bates Motel and Mother's House. The Psychiatrist thought it would be good. He did go and with help from a young girl named Willie and Moses Guinn helped him restore the Bates Motel. The young lad had financial trouble. However this Banker was trying to scare him away from the Bates Motel. Dressing as Norman Bates Mother and telling him scary stuff, about a murder that took place years ago. At the end the Banker got caught with some help from Willie she came in dressed as Mrs. Bates and got a confession. After all the excitement was over Bud got to keep the Motel. Norman Bates house behind the motel, should be made into an attraction for visitors. Make it into a Bed and Breakfast, your not going to get stabbed. It should be on the historical register.

22 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
This was a good movie, 14 October 2005

Author: dogglodi from United States

I was on this site and appalled to see the nasty comments about the movie. It was a rather good "closing chapter" to the Bates legacy. Anthony Perkins and his "mother" would be proud of it. So all of you people out there need to take a shower. a cold one and get over the fact that you as movie consumers are inferior to a normal person. I mean come on now i was 4 when i first watched it and even then i was smart enough to aknowledge "a great movie" when i saw one. For TV it was a edge of your seat thriller. You guys must be mad when u type awful comments like that. But as norman would say "we all go a little mad sometimes".

Josh Atterbury

9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Not as bad as it seems, 20 July 2003

Author: NerdofHorror from Kragerø, Norway

I remember i looked for this "hidden gem" for almost two years. I was very excited when i sat down to watch it. It was a bit different then i thought, but nor bad at all. Rather good actually, but it's so Unneccesary.

The film has some good acting though and especially from Bud Cort. He has a brilliant way of acting in this pilot. Very strange and mystical and also kind of nervous. (Perhaps it is a little Norman in him to).

Overall a recomended film for the "Psycho - fanatics", but not a movie you HAVE TO SEE.

8/10

9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
It Almost Worked, 9 April 2001

Author: William C. Uchtman (aesgaard41@hotmail.com) from Hendersonville, TN

There was an interesting idea in this non-conventional sequel to the popular Psycho movie series by connecting ghost stories to Norman's family members and victims, but using the motel as a setting to a Twilight Zone/Fantasy Island series was so out of left field that it just couldn't have worked for more than less a season. Bud Cort plays a guy who Norman had alledgedly befriended in the sanitarium. After his death, he inherits the hotel and the property, but the ghost of old Mother Bates won't sit still for the mockery. Lori Petty, still a relative unknown, plays his pretty female friend, and unforgettable Moses Gunn becomes his benefactor in this alternate reality to the movie series. The movie bogs down on the suicidal guest sub-plot, an idea later used in the third movie installment, but it should have stuck to the ghost stories than to try and create a series.

9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
I watched this for 2 reasons..., 8 April 2004
Author: sisterdebmac from Marietta, GA, USA

I was a fan of Tony Perkins and the original "Psycho". And I loved Bud Cort from the time I saw him in "Harold & Maude" on. What I came away thinking about when I saw "Bates Motel" though was, boy would this have made a great series. Also, who is Lori Petty? This was really one of her very first jobs. I followed her to the "Booker" TV series and I've been a fan ever since. Who would've thought that a Tennessee-born Pentecostal preacher's daughter would go on to be "Tank Girl"? I will always love this goofy little TV movie for keeping the But Cort flame alive and introducing me to Lori Petty. A note of trivia: Kurt Paul, who played Norman in this movie went on to stunt double for Tony Perkins in the big screen "Psycho" sequels and to guest star as the serial killer being interviewed by CCH Pounder in the "Psycho IV" cable movie.

9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
could be called Psycho 5, 8 February 2001

Author: Carl (unioncblue@cs.com) from Tampa, FL

This used to play every Fourth of July on t.v... EVERY Fourth of July! NBC's tagline: This 4th of July...Make it a scream! ( or something like that )

Saw this when it was first produced for NBC back in 1987. After a few reruns on that network it was picked up by Lifetime Cable and is now in Encore Mystery Channel's listings. NOWHERE near a classic but passable "stalker" fare if you have really, really low expectations for homogenized tele-terror.

Ironically, when I went to see Scream 3, I couldn't help but think about The Bates Motel ( And it's been years since I've seen this film! ). The similarities are shocking: Big, creepy manse as catalyst in final third of both films, extended chase scenes on staircases, Mrs. Bates' fright mask of skull and black mack ( nearly a decade before the first Scream ) and the eventual unmasking of the "killer" in both films.

It's probably crazy but I couldn't shake the comparisons. Strange. Also, though the movie was lensed way before Psycho IV: The Beginning, storywise, it easily could've been a fourth sequel.

Tame terror, with bizarre casting, but odd enough to give it a look

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