TERRIBLE

“I think at this point 

We start to wonder 

What's Going on in His Head

and What's Going to Happen 

because of this look on his face.”

“That's so interesting —

As An Actor, 

What is He Playing?”

Elijah Wood :

He's playing, 

"Oh, God, PLEASE Don't Let 

My Mother KILL This Girl."

Norman Bates is presented 

in all these little, you know,

encapsulated moments 

throughout the film

and in much the same way 

that The Murder is presented

in encapsulated moments of images 

and compositions, cut together.

So, I think that The Movie is, 

it's about Fragmentation,

it IS Fragmentation.

Norman goes up 

to The House —

It's very important that The Audience SEES him LEAVE,

because he is reacting to a third character that we think

is in The House, Mother.

But that is really in His Mind.

He goes to The Stairs 

and he looks up, and he looks like 

he's sad because he realises that 

Mom's not at Home upstairs.

Then he goes and flops 

into The Kitchen, like 

a dejected little schoolboy.

So he sits there, like, 

"Oh, rats, I can't have dinner 

with the lady I want to have dinner with."

I imagine he must've done that 

a LOT when Mother was alive.

That she must've 

yelled at him 

and he would just 

Go into The Kitchen 

when he couldn't get 

What He Wanted, 

when She was 

berating him 

for whatever,

he wasn't living up 

to Her Standards.

There's a LOT one could say about Hitchcock Mothers.

“Are you quite sure she didn't come down here to see you, to capture the rich Alex Sebastian for a husband?”

“Go get shaved before 

Your Father gets Home.”

“You gentlemen aren't really 

trying to kill My Son, are you?”

Eli Roth :

When you talk about 

What is Sacred in America,

people talk about 

“Mom, and Apple Pie.”

“Mom is Good, We Love Mom, 

We are Mom, We are Good.”

On the other hand, there's something else going on 

in 1950s America

in Culture and Society, 

where Mom is also suspect.

There was a serious 

Social Panic in America 

about Juvenile Delinquency.

One thing that this Social Panic resulted in was this 

Fear that Moms were Going to 

Shelter and Spoil Children, 

possibly America Itself, 

to DEATH.

All of the sitcoms - 

Father Knows Best, 

Ozzie and Harriet, where 

Mother never did anything.

All She Did was 

Take Care of The House 

and The Kids.”

“I'm just practically ready 

and David has to get dressed.”

“Get dressed? You mean dressed up?”

“Well, yes, you want to look nice when Nancy gets here.”

The Director who exposes 

The Horror 

of The American Family 

in The '50s

without making 

a horror movie, 

is Douglas Sirk.

“You see Kay, I love Ron.”

“You love him so much you're 

willing to ruin all our lives?”

“You can't really think that.”

“What else can I think?”

In Sirk, it's the whole 

construction of The Family.

It's not until Psycho, though, where

The Mother is 

literally A Monster 

when you see Her at The End.

HITCHCOCK :

I think My Mother scared Me 

when I was three months old.

AUDIENCE LAUGHS 

“You remember that?”

HITCHCOCK :

You see, She Said “Boo.”

“I don't know 

how many times 

in Psycho, 

Do People Talk 

about MOTHER.

“Oh, we can see each other.

We can even have dinner.

But respectably. 

In My House, with 

My Mother's Picture on The Mantel,

and My Sister helping me 

broil a big Steak for Three.”

“And after The Steak, 

will we send Sister 

to The Movies,

turn Mama's Picture 

to The Wall?”

“Sam!”

Patricia Hitchcock talks about, 

she offers her A Tranquilliser :

“Have you got some aspirin?”

“I've got Something, not aspirin….

My Mother’s Doctor 

gave them to me 

The Day of My a

Wedding.

Teddy was furious 

when he found out 

I had taken tranquillisers.”

“Any calls?”

“Teddy called, me,

My Mother called, to see 

if Teddy called...

Even in that office, the influence,

The Negative Influence 

of Mothers, 

and here it's 

on Women, not on Men.

So, the fact that 

Norman Bates' Mother, 

we realise eventually 

is Norman Bates himself,

might have on an unconscious level audiences saying, 

"A-Ha! I knew it! 

Mom IS gonna to Kill Us!

Mom IS going to be 

The Death of Us ALL!"

• SHOWER RUNS •

OK. Once more unto The Breach :

Back to The Primal Moment —