Bates Motel: Season One - Review

Bates Motel explores the psyche of Alfred Hitchcock's notorious character of Norman Bates as he moves to a small Oregon town with his mother at the age of 17.


I will admit I am a bit late to the party when it comes to Bates Motel. But, it is never too late to binge watch shows on Netflix and now that I have I must admit it is a pretty decent show. That is for being a modern day prequel.
I think the bright spot is the cast with Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore. I was skeptical about this show which is why I didn't watch it when it premiered last year. I wanted to wait and see what people thought and I had seen pretty decent reviews of it. I was nervous about Highmore, but I am the first to say he plays creepy and awkward perfectly. You really believe how socially awkward he is. Aside from his presence, I think Vera Farmiga is knocking it out of the park as Norma. She has a great mixture of crazy, protective, and being somewhat distant from reality. The only character I find somewhat annoying is Dylan played by Max Thieriot. I think it's more the character than the acting, but I had a lot of moments where I just wanted him to shut up and disappear.
Oddly enough, the modern day setting didn't bother me either. I don't think the qualities possessed by the original characters necessarily is outdated and Norman's psyche is just as believable in the year 2013 as it was back in 1960.

As far as the plot of the first season goes, I thought it was a bit interesting. Having two high school kids magically discover an Asian sex-slave ring in their small town was a bit unrealistic, but it was carried out with intensity. When the cops get involved and there is murder you pretty much are adding perfect ingredients for a nail biter. As soon as the second episode was over I was hooked and continued watching until episode six without a break.
The discovery of Norman having memory issues and forgetting things and imagining things is a nice setup for future seasons. It pretty much shows that his mother is just covering for him most of the time and her only objective is to protect him. That's enough to drive anyone a little crazy sometimes, eh?


Either way, I am really looking forward to seeing season two at some point. I think this show has a lot of promise if they stick to the elements introduced already.

The Conjuring to debut at LA Film Festival

James Wan's upcoming horror film The Conjuring will make its debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 21st. There will be two screenings followed by a Q&A session with James Wan. Warner Bros previously screened footage at CinemaCon back in April where the film received several positive reviews. The film also created some buzz when the MPAA slapped an R-rating on it for "simply being too scary for PG-13."

The film tells the true story of the Perron family (portrayed by Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston) who claimed to live with the dead in their Rhode Island home back in the 1970's. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson play Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who worked with the Perrons.

The Conjuring opens domestically on July 19, 2013.

The Conjuring too scary for PG-13?

Apparently the MPAA thought so.

Director James Wan revealed at WonderCon during a panel for his upcoming film The Conjuring that he shot the film to be PG-13 like Insidious was. However, when the film was screened for the MPAA they deemed it "just too scary for PG-13" and slapped the film with an R-rating. Bear in mind this movie received this reaction without any gore and the MPAA didn't cite any scenes that could be removed to lower the rating down to PG-13.
Audiences at WonderCon were also screened footage from the film and the reactions have all been positive so far. There were also real victims and paranormal investigators from the original event present for the screenings and the panel.

I'm pretty excited for The Conjuring and seeing that this received such a rating for simply being too scary... I say bring it on.

The Conjuring stars Lili Taylor, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, and Mackenzie Foy. It is set for release on July 19, 2013.

Freddie Highmore cast as Norman Bates

A&E has cast child star Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Finding Neverland) as Norman Bates in the upcoming show Bates Motel, the Psycho prequel set to air next year. He joins Vera Farmiga who previously signed on to play Bates' mother.

Bates Motel will be set in the present day and will follow Norman living with his mother.