Desertman84
Anthony Perkins once again reprises his most famous role in the last film of the Psycho franchise entitled "Psycho IV: The Beginning".Olivia Hussey,CCH Pounder and Henry Thomas co-stars with him in this TV movie that serves the final film of the Psycho film series.The screenplay written by the original scriptwriter of the original film Joseph Stefano tells us the story of the young Norman Bates and how he grew up with his infamous "Mother" that led him into becoming what he is. The movie starts when Norman Bates just got released from the mental institution.He is now married to a psychiatrist and expecting a child.He becomes an anonymous caller to a radio station in a program by Dr.Richmond while discussing the topic "matricide".As the caller "Ed", Norman get to tell the story of his life when he was young while growing up with his mother Norma Bates and how his upbringing led him into becoming what he became to be psychologically and the psychotic killer that he became to be.No question that this TV movie was more of both a prequel and a sequel to the Hitchcock film as it completely disregards the events of Psycho II and Psycho III.The character Emma Spool was not taken into consideration.While some fans of the film franchise would probably not like it,I personally felt that this film never took a shortcut into highlighting "mother" and the negative effect she brought to Norman psychologically rather than taking the responsibility away from her.Added to that,it also brings more consideration to the events of the original 1960 film which was definitely the masterpiece of the film franchise.Despite of it,I think that I could forgive it for doing that being a wonderful film that it is.As for being a slasher flick just like the third film (Psycho III),I think that it did well as we get to see the notoriety of Norman when he begins to kill again.The performances were definitely outstanding especially Perkins as Norman and surprisingly Hussey as Norma or "Mother". Special credit should also be given to Henry Thomas as the young and naive Norman. Finally,the movie did well in providing a closure to Norman's character to provide a fitting conclusion to the film and the film franchise itself.
jacobjohntaylor1
5.5 is overrating this movie. This not a good movie. The original Psycho from 1960 is a great movie. Psycho II is a great movie. Psycho III is a great movie. The Psycho remake from 1998 is a great movie. And this one is just crap. The characters make the most stupid decisions. It was just to give a character a happy ending and he does not even deserve a happy ending. It is not scary. And very badly written. Do not see this movie it is a big let down. Do not wast your time. Life is to short. Do not wast your money. I am some one who likes sequels and I was disappointed by the movie. See all the Psycho except this one. This one you can skip.
Rainey Dawn
Psycho IV is the perfect finale to the film series. We are able to get the entire back-story on Norman Bates. For the first three movies, insight was given (revealed) about Norman but the insight given still left the viewers with more questions about him. "What was up with Norman's mother?" "Who was Norman's mother?" "What was Norman's mother really like?" "What was it that drove Norman so crazy, so psycho?" - all these questions that fans have wondered will be finally answered in the fourth film: Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990).For those that have never seen one of the psycho films, you should watch them in order to build suspense towards the fourth movie "Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)".The rating on this movie is entirely to low and has unfair bad criticism in my opinion. It's a good finale.9/10
Kayla Johnson
When I first watched the movie Psycho I wasn't a big fan of the ending, I felt that it was missing something and it was too predictable. I continued to watch Psycho II and Psycho III, all of which I found quite the same, it's not that the acting wasn't good, in fact the acting was fantastic, but it was that the story was missing something. In Psycho IV everything that was missing was found and it made the first three movies worthy of watching because without them you wouldn't feel any kind of emotions of sympathy for Norman Bates in IV but without IV the story wasn't complete and felt wrong. I love Psycho IV because it emphasizes that people truly can change and Norman triumphs over his illness. Who doesn't love a good happy ending, right?
AD
