TV Review: "Bates Motel"

Now that AMC has the highest-rated show on television with their often frustrating though usually amazing adaptation of Robert Kirkman's "The Walking Dead," it seems that every network is jumping on the horror bandwagon (more on NBC's "Hannibal," soon). Cable rival A&E (which used to stand for 'Arts & Entertainment') has given us their reboot of the Psycho franchise with "Bates Motel."

Set in modern California, "Bates Motel" is all about the young Norman Bates, his relationship with his mother and all the things that would eventually lead him to become the serial killer we all know and love. Novelist Robert Bloch based Norman on the infamous Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein, who also served as inspiration for the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Gein dug up the graves of middle aged women he thought resembled his mother and made 'trophies' of their various body parts. In Bloch's novel Psycho (and Alfred Hitchcock's astounding subsequent film), Norman Bates kills and taxidermies his mother, takes on her persona and kills women "Mother" thinks jeopardizes their relationship.

"Bates Motel" begins with the 'accidental' death of Norman's father in the family's Arizona garage. Norman (Freddie Highmore) is devastated, though his mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) is surprisingly calm. Flash forward six months and the Bateses have moved to California where Norma has purchased a house and motel in order to start a new life for her and her son. Soon, the property's former owner, angry at having lost the motel in foreclosure, shows up to harass and eventually rape Norma. After Norman bashes the rapist over the head, Norma stabs him to death and convinces Norman to help her cover up the crime by dumping his body in a nearby lake. It isn't long before the hot Sheriff (Nestor Carbonell) and his younger, but equally attractive, deputy (Mike Vogel) show up with questions about the former owner's disappearance. It doesn't help matters that Norman, while ripping up a blood-stained carpet in one of the motel's rooms, discovers a hand-drawn diary of sorts, detailing the murder of an Asian sex-slave at the motel. Oh, and there are several attractive young girls at Norman's new school, who find the nerdy geek attractive, one of whom is the CF-suffering daughter of a taxidermist (hit us over the heads, much?). Of course, we all know nerds rule the world, but since when did 17 year old girls find them so hot?

Series creator Anthony Cipriano has set up an intriguing premise, though I can't say that all of what he's attempting to do works. There are some fine and interesting performances from Farmiga (Up in the Air) and Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) as the dysfunctional mother and son. Carbonell (listed in the credits as a 'Guest Star,' so we already know he doesn't have long to live) applies the same intensity as he did to the FBI agent he played in the ill-fated "Ringer," but comes off as a bit of a jerk, much like his age-defying character on "Lost." Vogel (coincidentally having appeared in the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) is certainly pretty, but not much more. In fact, it seems like the producers (among them "Lost" producer, Carlton Cruse) of the show have gone out of their way to cast it with only very attractive actors, many of whom could be replaced with similarly attractive actors without anyone in the audience taking notice. It's almost as if they want to distract us from the very silly plot (which involves a town-wide marijuana farm conspiracy and a sex-slave story) with eye-candy. Not that I'm against eye-candy, per-se. I just prefer some substance to go along with it. The relationship between Norma and Norman tries to provide that substance, though the addition of Norman's half-brother Dylan (the also very pretty Max Thieriot), does little to help the cause.

While "Bates Motel" is certainly interesting, I don't think it has the legs to carry beyond a season or two. Especially since we all know the outcome. ** (2 Stars out of 4).

More, anon.
Prospero

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Master of Suspense

Sir Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock

Let's take a brief Ghost Break, shall we?

There are almost as many stories about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho as there are analyses and commentaries on it. First, it truly is a masterpiece, despite its lurid (especially for 1960) subject matter. Imagine seeing Psycho for the first time in 1960. Not only did the director force you to arrive before the movie started by not letting anyone in after the first ten minutes (a trick that changed movie attendance forever), but the lovely leading lady is killed in the first act! And not just killed, but brutally knifed to death in the shower! By someone who turns out to be a man in women's clothing! Someone who taxidermied his own mother!

Based on the novel by Robert Bloch, which in turn was inspired by the true story of Wisconsin murderer and body snatcher Ed Gein, Psycho was unlike any movie anyone had ever made before. And it was a sensation. It was also the movie no one, including Hitch's wife Alma, wanted him to make. Of course, modern 'slasher' films make Psycho look quaint by comparison, though not even the best of them displays a tenth of its artistry. And I won't even go into Bernard Herrman's astonishing and iconic score, other than to say that everyone makes those staccato violin sounds when pretending to stab someone.

Now, in one of two competing films about the filmmaker (HBO's The Girl examines the director's relationship with the star of his other great horror classic, The Birds), director Sasha Gervasi (Anvil: The Story of Anvil) takes a look at the making of Psycho and its toll on the director and his wife in Hitchcock. Starring Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs; Magic) as Hitchcock; Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen) as Alma; Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers) as Janet Leigh; Jessica Biel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - also inspired by Gein) as Vera Miles; James D'Arcy (the upcoming Cloud Atlas) as Anthony Perkins and Michael Wincott as Gein. Toni Collete; Ralph Macchio; Danny Huston and Wallace Langham round out the amazing cast.

Psycho's influence on film and it's fans (not to mention the horror genre) is more far-reaching than almost any other since Citizen Kane.  

Hitchcock is one fall film I will most defintely NOT be missing.

Toby Jones (most recently seen as a dwarf in Snow White and the Huntsman) takes on the role of the lecherous director with a penchant for blondes in The Girl for HBO, alongside Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedron, later this month. 

More, anon.
Prospero

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Happy 113th, Hitch!

Hitchcock and Friend

I'm pretty sure I posted about Hitch's birthday last year, but I'm too lazy (and too sick with a very nasty Summer cold) to look it up. Director Alfred Hitchcock made the 20th Century's most iconic thrillers and in 1960, changed the movie-going habits of America. Audiences used to show up for movies whenever they felt like it, often entering a movie that was already in-progress and sticking around for the next show to see what they missed. By insisting that no-one be allowed to enter the theatre after the first ten minutes of Psycho (the grandfather of all 'slasher' movies), Hitchcock forced audiences to arrive before the movie started.Psycho also upended audience's expectations by killing it's star in the movie's first act, something unheard of previously.

Of course, Hitch is famous for more than just that. He created the term MacGuffin and knew that the suspense of climbing a rollercoaster's first hill was far worse than the drop. He famously said about building suspense (you should excuse the paraphrasing here): "Place a bomb under a table at a meeting which only the audience knows is there," or something to affect. He also said (directly quoting here):

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."And rather infamously, he is known for saying that "Actors should be treated like cattle." As much as I admire his films, I have to disagree with that particular sentiment.

Among my personal favorite Hitchcock films are:

Psycho:

Strangers on a Train: 

North by Northwest:

Rope:

Rear Window:

The Birds:

And of course, his masterpiece (widely derided by critics upon its initial release), Vertigo: 

Hitch was also famous for making cameo appearances in his own films. Here (via) is a video compilation of all of his cameos: 

Modern filmmakers owe an incredible debt to Hitchcock. He may have been (from many accounts) a bastard, but he created some of the most indelible images and films of all of all time. Personally, I don't know a single member of my generation who doesn't know and love at least one of his films. 

More, anon.

Prospero

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Psych!

I suppose I have to say something about the single most influential Horror movie ever made, considering it is the film's 50th Anniversary.

Not many 50 year-old movies still hold up, let alone 50 year-old horror movies. And trust me, there were some awesome horror movies released the same year: Roger Corman's The Fall of the House of Usher; Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (Wes Craven's inspiration for Last House on the Left); The Village of the Damned and The Innocents were all released the same year.

But it was Hitchcock's experiment in low-budget, artistic filmmaking that caught the world's attention and changed movie-going habits forever. Of course, none of those other movies had a half-naked John Gavin, either...

The last time I seriously sat down to watch Psycho was at least 10 years and with my then significant other, R. R was almost as big a movie buff as I was, though I did introduce him to The 5000 Fingers... and he nearly tore my arm off when we went to see The Blair Witch Project. We were curled up on the love seat in my living room, and came to the conclusion that Psycho is as perfect a movie as you might find. Turning convention on its ear and requiring audiences to see the movie from the beginning caused a sensation in June of 1960 and Hitchcock's most well-known and most widely seen film would go on to influence filmmakers from Tobe Hooper to Brian DePalma, while putting an all-too human face on a genre that had previously been dominated by supernatural elements.

If you've never seen it, you should (and What the Hell???!!???). If it has been awhile, see it again. Then watch it again and look for all the things that less-talented folks have emulated, ever since.

I did learn two things about the movie that I didn't know before: It was the first time a toilet was seen on screen, and budgetary concerns forced composer Bernard Herrmann to score the film using only stringed instruments, resulting in one of the most famous music cues in film history. Both the toilet and score can be best appreciated in this exceptionally well-known (and certainly over-blogged) sequence:

See what 47 separate edits, sound FX and chocolate syrup can do for your movie?

Of course, if you're anything like Uncle P (and Lord help you, if you are), you love Hitch and satirical send-ups... Mel Brooks takes on the Master's greatest films in 1977's High Anxiety and mostly nails it in one of his last funny movies:

Oh, Madeline Kahn, how I miss you!

Personally, I can't think of a more influential horror movie, ever. Often copied (the less said about Gus van Sant's execrable 1998 remake, the better) in structure and pacing, but never quite matched, Psycho is one of those films forever enmeshed in the 20th Century Pop Culture psyche. It may have ruined Anthony Perkins career, but it set the stage for an entire genre which still endures. How many films do you know that hold that claim?

More, anon.
Prospero

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