31 Screams in October, Vol. 3, #17: Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

Director: Joseph Stefano

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Henry Thomas, Olivia Hussey, CCH Pounder

The disappointment of “Psycho III,” both creatively and financially, meant that if Norman Bates were to return again, he would be forced to do so on the small screen. That’s how we got “Psycho IV,” which was first broadcast on Showtime on November 10, 1990. It’s a very strange bird, indeed: Half interesting, and half not. Because the narrative switches back and forth between two time periods, it acts as both a sequel and as a prequel. The smart thing to do would have been to simplify things by filming the thing as a prequel only, but that would have meant leaving Anthony Perkins out of what was effectively the 30th anniversary celebration of the original “Psycho.”

Fran Ambrose (CCH Pounder) is a radio talk show host whose program’s topic of discussion on this particular day is matricide. During the course of the show, she takes a call from Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who initially refers to himself only as “Ed.” Norman is now married to a psychiatrist he met while institutionalized. But Norman alarms Fran by telling her he has to kill his wife. Fran asks “Ed” why he would want to betray his wife’s faith in him, and to destroy the work he has put into rejoining society. Norman has grown concerned over his wife’s pregnancy, which he was against, fearing that a continuation of his bloodline will only result in another monster like him.

During the course of the phone interview, Norman tells Fran (in non-linear fragments) his origin story. It starts with the death of his father, after which he and Mrs. Bates (Olivia Hussey) live alone together, mostly isolated from the outside world. All goes well for a while, but soon Mrs. Bates begins showing signs of a personality disorder, often becoming hostile toward her son. The abuse worsens once the young Norman (Henry Thomas) reaches the age of puberty, when Norman is often forced to wear a dress to punish him for becoming sexually aroused. The boiling point comes when Mrs. Bates brings a new man into the equation whom she intends to marry. Chet is no prize, and does nothing to ingratiate himself toward Norman who, to be fair, was probably not going to accept any new father figure in his life.

Ultimately, Norman elects to poison both Chet and his mother by putting strychnine in their iced tea. Immediately, Norman misses his mother, stealing the corpse so as to preserve it through taxidermy. He then develops the infamous “Mother” personality as a way of avoiding his guilt over murdering her. Routinely, he will dress as her and speak to himself in her voice (as closely as he can approximate it). Encounters with young women at the Bates Motel always end with the “Mother” personality taking over and murdering the “sluts.”

Back in the present day, just as Norman told Fran he would do, he takes his wife to the Bates’ house and attempts to kill her. But Connie does manage to talk him down. After all of this, she forgives him. Norman, this woman is a keeper. Hold on to her! Instead of killing Connie, Norman decides to set fire to the house… something he probably should have done a long time ago… nearly perishing in the flames before escaping at the last minute. This act appears to have symbolically released Norman from the shackles of his decades-long mental torment.

With the exception of one throwaway line, “Psycho IV” appears to have done away with the plots of the previous two films entirely, making this film a direct sequel to the original “Psycho.” While this does tidy up the messier parts of the series’ overall plot, it can be a little jarring when you’re watching these movies back-to-back. The “will he/won’t he kill his wife?” parts of the movie are actually very dull. The finale is particularly ineffective.

Considering the milestone of the 30th anniversary of “Psycho,” I get why the need was felt for Anthony Perkins to be on board, but I would have personally enjoyed a more fleshed-out version of Norman’s origin story. In the parts of the movie set in the 1940s/1950s, both Henry Thomas and Olivia Hussey are excellent as the young Norman and his mother. These two deserved to have their own movie. Sadly, because “Psycho IV” opts to divide its time, neither one of its two stories is given the care they required, leaving it a sad end to a series which began as strongly as any horror film series ever has.

Black Christmas (1974)

Director: Bob Clark

Starring: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Marian Waldman, Andrea Martin

It’s extraordinary to think that the same man who brought us “A Christmas Story,” the 1983 comedy classic which gets its own annual 24-hour marathon on December 25th, can also be thought of as responsible for kick starting that most divisive of horror subgenres, the slasher movie. Indeed, it is debatable as to which movie can truly seen as being the pioneer for these types of films. Elements of the slasher can be traced back as early as 1932’s “Thirteen Women” which is set in a sorority house. 1960’s “Psycho” and “Peeping Tom” gave us shocking murder sequences and the POV shot from the killer’s perspective. The films of Herschel Gordon Lewis were our first real taste of horror movies with a more blood-soaked approach. In 1971, Mario Bava’s “Twitch of the Death Nerve” was one of the earliest “body count” movies, and several of its shocking murder sequences were copied shot for shot by some of the most popular slasher films of the 1980’s. But it was 1974’s “Black Christmas” which first took the elements provided by these earlier films and put them all together.

As the movie begins, right away you can see where John Carpenter got his inspiration for HIS opening shot of 1978’s “Halloween,” with the POV shot of the killer making his way into the sorority house. Inside, the sorority sisters are all making their holiday plans, either to stay at the house or to return home to their families. At the same time, they are besieged with obscene phone calls. Jess (Olivia Hussey) is the one who usually takes the calls from the one she refers to as “the moaner.” Olivia Hussey puts her Shakespearean method of overacting on full display when performing such a simple task as answering the phone (“HELLO! PARDON?! WHO?!”). After sharing one such call with her fellow sorority sisters, Jess surrenders the phone to Barb (Margot Kidder) who tells the creep off… and he doesn’t take too kindly to her insults.

Soon after, one of the sorority sisters goes missing, having been killed in her room and propped up in a chair in the attic, thus creating the film’s most iconic image. The girl’s father eventually comes looking for her when she fails to meet with him. Once at the house, he is horrified by the drinking, foul language and obscene posters on the walls. The House Mother (hilariously portrayed by Marian Waldman) plays it cool in front of the missing girl’s father, but makes fun of his prudish ways behind his back as she gleefully drinks from several bottles of alcohol hidden around the house. They go to the police who, after an amusing misunderstanding between Barb and the dimwitted Sargeant, finally get a hold of Lt. Fuller (John Saxon, ten years before once again playing a police lieutenant in “A Nightmare on Elm Street”) who sets up a wiretap so they can trace the obscene phone calls. Remember, no cell phones back then.

At the same time that the body count at the sorority house continues to mount, Jess is caught up in an increasingly heated argument with her boyfriend Peter (Keir Dullea), one that the police eventually get wind of, and Peter becomes the prime suspect. Before long, Jess is left to fend for herself without help from anyone, even the police.

The ending is ambiguous… as it should be. I applaud Bob Clark for taking this direction, as the scariest of monsters are humans whose motives, if they have any, remain unclear. John Carpenter would take this to heart, as Michael Myers was initially stalking babysitters for no apparent reason in “Halloween” before the sequels gave him reasons for his bloody rampage. In fact, a conversation between Clark and Carpenter once took place in which Carpenter asked if Clark had planned a sequel to “Black Christmas.” Although Clark had no plans to make one himself, he told Carpenter that he thought a potential sequel might take place on October 31st, with the killer being an escaped mental patient. In this way, it can be inferred that without “Black Christmas” there would be no “Halloween” and, as a result, no slasher genre either.

Gore fans will be disappointed, as the movie is virtually bloodless, but fans of atmospheric and psychological horror should tune in. The cast is excellent for a slasher movie. Margot Kidder is a standout. Olivia Hussey, who was possibly the most beautiful actress in the world in 1974, is also the PERFECT “final girl.” Her best moments are towards the end of the movie as she finds herself alone and vulnerable inside the sorority house. Many will watch Bob Clark’s other Christmas-themed movie over the December holiday season, but “Black Christmas” is an essential part of my regular Christmas movie rotation. You should definitely give this one a watch, if for no other reason than its importance in film history.