Norman Bates

I absolutely LOVE Norman Bates, especially when I see him at Universal Studios. He’s a great guy.

Who is Norman Bates?

• Is a fictional character and the main protagonist in his 1959 horror novel Psycho. Norman was abused by his mother but later becomes victim, Norma, who in his daily life runs the Bates Motel. Norman is loosely inspired by the real-life killer Ed Gein.

Psycho: (1959)

Norman Bates loves his mother. She has been dead for the past 20 years, or so people think. Norman knows better, though.

Ever since leaving the hospital, he has lived with Mother in the old house up on the hill above the Bates Motel. One night, after a beautiful woman checks into the motel, Norman spies on her as she undresses. Norman can’t help but spy on her.

Mother is there, though. She is there to protect Norman from his filthy thoughts. She is there to protect him with her butcher knife.

If you love to be scared, or are a fan of classic movies, then you know the story of Norman Bates, his mother, and the dark and frightening Bates Motel. Alfred Hitchcock’s taut, shocking scare-fest starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh is a classic movie, as scary today as it was in 1960 when it was first released, and this is the 1959 novel upon which the movie is based.

It was here that the legend of the Bates Motel was born.

Psycho (1960)

Phoenix secretary Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), on the lam after stealing $40,000 from her employer in order to run away with her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin), is overcome by exhaustion during a heavy rainstorm. Traveling on the back roads to avoid the police, she stops for the night at the ramshackle Bates Motel and meets the polite but highly strung proprietor Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), a young man with an interest in taxidermy and a difficult relationship with his mother.

Bates Motel: (2013)

After the death of her husband, Norma Bates buys a motel in the picturesque coastal town of White Pine Bay, giving herself and teenage son Norman a chance to begin anew. Shy Norman is reluctant at first, but with the help of his mother — with whom he shares an intensely close relationship — the boy begins to open up to others and make new friends. Some locals, however, aren’t as friendly and welcoming to the Bates, who discover that because White Pine Bay isn’t as peaceful as it appears, they are forced to do whatever it takes to survive. The drama series, from executive producers Carlton Cuse (“Lost”) and Kerry Ehrin (“Friday Night Lights”) and inspired by the seminal 1960 horror film “Psycho,” explores the formative years of Norman Bates and how his complicated bond with his mother forged a serial killer.

I really enjoyed the book, I think it is so well written BUT seeing him on the backlot tour at Universal is the CREEPIEST thing ever but I absolutely LOVE it. If you look closely at his house all the way at the top you may be able to see something pretty cool. If you ever go to Horror Nights, you will be able to walk in that area and meet Norman himself.

-Dezi