Radio host Fran Ambrose (CCH Pounder) does a show about men who kill their mothers. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) calls in as Ed from a seemingly suburban kitchen. His psychiatrist Dr. Richmond is a guest on the show. He recalls various stories from his past. As a young man, Norman (Henry Thomas) kills a girl obeying the delusional voice of his mother. He describes his life with his mother Norma (Olivia Hussey).There are some inconsistencies with the earlier sequels. It's nice to have Perkins back but he is mostly talking on the phone until the last part. Henry Thomas does a nice younger Norman in the flashbacks. The individual vignettes aren't that memorable and neither are the victims. This TV sequel tries to be Hitchcockian. It's better than feared but still not that compelling.

Anthony Perkins returns as 'former' psychotic Norman Bates in this cable-made entry in the "Psycho" series, here phoning a radio talk-show in the present day to discuss the topic of matricide; flashbacks show us the teenage Norman and his volatile relationship with his widowed mother, which had incestuous overtones. Joseph Stefano's script isn't very strong--the constipated narrative is full of stop-and-start action--while director Mick Garris' pacing is doggedly straightforward (despite some artistic flourishes early on). The victims are all promiscuous women, and Henry Thomas as young Norman (perhaps cast for his lanky frame) isn't up to rigors of a madman role--he's too intrinsically decent. Olivia Hussey does a fine, colorful job as the tempestuous Mrs. Bates and, as always, it's nice to see Perkins reprising his most famous character. About on the same level as "Psycho III", itself a long way off from the bar originally set by Alfred Hitchcock.

The explanation by the good doctor at the end of the original Psycho is expanded, in laborious, uncomfortable detail, here, and to lesser effect.Awkward TV-movie shows us in far too graphic of detail the abuse and trauma experienced by a young Norman Bates at the hands of his mother, and how that drove him to kill. The story is played out through a lengthy series of flashbacks, as Norman is a caller on a radio talk show about matricide. Fairly interesting premise, but watching someone physically, sexually, and psychologically abusing their kid is extremely difficult to watch, and after a while, the viewer feels almost as traumatised as Norman.The set design was fairly dull, too.

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?