In this the last movie of the Psycho series, Norman has flashbacks to his youth and the circumstances that made him the man he became. There is a sort of bittersweet nostalgia to the memories and the circumstances as well as some loopholes in the continuity. A bathroom appears in mother's room where one never was and the fight scene takes away from the fact that Mrs. Bates and her lover were believed to have poisoned themselves in bed. I guess Norman could have dragged them back up there, but then you'd think that the police at the time would have found evidence of tampering with the murder scene. Well, this is a small town; they wouldn't have expected such a grandiose plot from such a then expected "nice young man." Olivia Hussey does a good job portraying the shrewish and demented Norma Bates and Henry Thomas of E.T. fame forgets that role to emote Perkins as Bates from the first movie. Putting an end to the Bates legacy sends Norman tripping through memories of his infamous past as the ghosts of his victims come to haunt him, but the ghost of Marion Crane herself is conspicuously absent as it was her who started the series by stealing his boss's money. Otherwise, this is a great end to one of Hollywood's most memorable move series.
Review of Psycho IV: The Beginning
