SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

gavin6942 Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) returns for this prequel, once more having mommy trouble. This time around he is invited to share memories of mom (Olivia Hussey) with a radio talk show host (CCH Pounder).Joseph Stefano, the screenwriter of the original film, was brought back to write the fourth film. He had disliked the two films between I and IV, feeling that they were too commercial and catered to the conventions of slasher movies. In an interview, Stefano stated, "Gearing up for Psycho IV, I decided to ignore the two sequels – like the business in II about Norman's mother." I think Stefano had the right idea. Arguably, this is the best sequel to the original film, which is pretty rare for this far into a franchise. There is a solid cast, a fresh new story, and more than adequate direction from Mick Garris. (I don't typically have high praise for Garris, but between this and "Sleepwalkers" he has at least two hits under his belt.)

The Couchpotatoes I'm not going to say it's a bad movie. It's just that all the others were better. I don't think it was necessary to make this one. Maybe in that time it was nice to have a prequel of what happened to Norman Bates in his youth. But now you have a much better thing to watch if you want Norman Bates' history as a kid. You can just watch the series Bates Motel. That series is much better then this movie. Now back to Psycho, the beginning. Anthony Perkins is like always the star of the movie. He is the face of Norman Bates, the perfect psycho. The young guy playing the young Norman does a good job as well but it's not the same. The story going back and forth from present to past is okay but not really necessary. Watch Bates Motel instead.

skybrick736 The fourth and final film in the franchise, called The Beginning, is half prequel and half sequel and originally aired on television. The reason way Psycho 4 can be labeled a prequel is because there are more flashback scenes than current, present scenes occurring within the film's run-time. The premise of him calling into a radio show about his past is a little corny but since it's original within the horror genre, it didn't mind myself as a viewer as much.The part that's most enjoyable about The Beginning is the flashback scenes since they really dug deeper into Norman's relationship with his mother. In these scenes, Olivia Hussey was amazing as Norman's mother, a tremendous part to a good cast; she looked absolutely stunning and demonstrated a phenomenal skillset as an actress. Don't get me wrong though, there were scenes with poor acting by other cast members and bad dialogue throughout the film. The movie doesn't add much to the story overall, but clears up a lot of questions that were originally left to the audience's imagination. The Beginning is the last film in the franchise, and actually wrapped itself up really nicely at the end, which is sometimes rarely done in the horror genre. Psycho 4: The Beginning is nothing extraordinary but a decent watch, along with the other sequels, so it's truly best to watch all of the films in a row after Hitchcock's classic original.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki The explanation by the good doctor at the end of the original Psycho is expanded, in laborious, uncomfortable detail, here, and to lesser effect.Awkward TV-movie shows us in far too graphic of detail the abuse and trauma experienced by a young Norman Bates at the hands of his mother, and how that drove him to kill. The story is played out through a lengthy series of flashbacks, as Norman is a caller on a radio talk show about matricide. Fairly interesting premise, but watching someone physically, sexually, and psychologically abusing their kid is extremely difficult to watch, and after a while, the viewer feels almost as traumatised as Norman.The set design was fairly dull, too.