Norma Bates (Psycho)

Character overview

Both the 1959 novel and the 1960 film adaptation explain that after the death of her husband, Norma raises her son Norman with cruelty: she forbids him to have a life away from her, and teaches him that sexual intercourse is sinful and that all women (except herself) are whores. The novel also suggests that their relationship may have been incestuous.

For many years, Norma and Norman live together "as if there is no one else in the world". When Norman is a teenager, his mother meets Joe Considine (Chet Rudolph in Psycho IV: The Beginning), whom she begins dating and plans to marry. Considine convinces Norma to open a motel. Norman grows insanely jealous, believing that Norma has abandoned him for her fiancé, and murders them with strychnine. He then forges a suicide note, making it look like Norma had killed Considine and then herself.

Unable to bear the loss of his mother, Norman steals Norma's corpse and mummifies it, and speaks to it as if his mother were still alive. He also speaks to himself in her voice and frequently dresses in her clothes; in his own mind, he becomes his mother in order to escape the guilt of having murdered her. The Mother personality is as possessive and cruel as Norma had been in life; Mother dominates and belittles him, forbids him to have friends, and kills any woman whom he feels attracted to. When Norman regains consciousness, he discovers the crime he is convinced his mother has committed, and destroys the evidence.

Psycho (novel and film)

One of "Mother"'s victims is Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who flees to the Bates Motel after stealing money from her employer in order to marry her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (John Gavin). When she checks into the motel, Norman is smitten, and invites her to have dinner with him in his office. This arouses "Mother"'s ire, and she threatens to kill Marion if Norman lets her into the house. He defies her and has dinner with Marion, who takes pity on him and gently suggests that he put his mother in a mental institution. He angrily rejects the suggestion, however. After Marion retires to her room, Norman becomes "Mother" and kills Marion in the shower. When Norman regains consciousness, he disposes of Marion's corpse in a nearby swamp, covering up what he believes to be his mother's crime.

Marion's employer hires private investigator Milton Arbogast (Martin Balsam) to find her, and he goes to the motel and questions Norman. Norman mentions that Marion had spoken with his mother, but he refuses to let Arbogast see her. Suspicious, Arbogast goes to the house, where "Mother" kills him as well. Sam and Lila Crane (Vera Miles), Marion's sister, soon arrive, suspecting Norman of killing Marion for the money. Lila discovers Mrs. Bates' corpse in the fruit cellar while searching the house; moments later, Norman attacks her as "Mother", only to be subdued by Sam. Norman is then arrested and institutionalized, and the "Mother" persona takes complete, permanent control of his mind.

Psycho II

In the film Psycho II (unrelated to the novel of the same name), twenty-two years later, Norman Bates, now supposedly cured, is released from the institution and returns home. He is soon confronted by notes supposedly written by Mrs. Bates and phone calls by someone who claims to be his mother. Norman takes a job at a local diner and befriends Emma Spool (Claudia Bryar), the cook, and a waitress named Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly). Norman offers Mary a room in his house, and she reluctantly accepts. At about this time, a series of mysterious murders are committed by a woman with a knife to people who come to the motel and the house.

Norman's sanity begins to unravel, as he starts to believe that his mother's ghost is committing the murders. His psychiatrist, Dr. Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia), shows him Mrs. Bates' corpse and reveals to him that Mary Samuels is actually Mary Loomis, Sam Loomis' daughter, and is plotting with her mother, Lila, to drive him crazy in order to get him recommitted for Marion's murder; they both dress up as Norman's mother and appear through the window of her bedroom. Mary believes that the murderer is hiding in Norman's house, and when Norman explains to Mary that the murderer might be his real mother, she speculates that he might have been adopted.

The murderer eventually kills Lila. When Mary and Norman return to the house, Norman receives a phone call from Dr. Raymond; in his mind, however, the phone call is from his mother. Mary, disturbed, tries to convince Norman to stop answering the phone by dressing up as his mother, complete with a butcher knife. Mary accidentally kills Dr. Raymond, who has come to the house to catch Mary, and Norman tries to hide her from the police. Mary discovers Lila's corpse hidden in a pile of coal, and, convinced Norman is the murderer, tries to kill him. The police intervene just in time however, and shoot her dead.

That night, Mrs. Spool visits Norman and reveals that she is his real mother, and that Norma Bates was actually his aunt; Mrs. Spool had been put in a mental institution shortly after giving birth to Norman, and her sister, Mrs. Bates, had adopted him and told him that he was her son. Mrs. Spool then reveals that she had committed the murders in order to protect Norman. He bludgeons her to death with a shovel, and carries her body up to Mrs. Bates' room, where the "Mother" personality takes control of his mind once again.

Psycho III

One month later, a reporter named Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell) latches on to the history of the Bates/Spool families; her research leads her to the story of a love triangle between Norman's father, John, and the Spool sisters, Norma and Emma. Emma killed John in a jealous rage after Norma stole him away from her, and abducted the young Norman, convincing herself he was the child she had with John. Emma was arrested and institutionalized, and Norman was returned to his mother.

By this point in the series, Norman has begun murdering young women again under the control of the Mother personality. He finds some hope for redemption when he meets and falls in love with a young woman and former nun named Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid), but Mother eventually wins out and kills her. Tracy finds Norman and tells him the truth about his parentage, and Norman attacks his aunt's preserved corpse. He is arrested and sent back to the institution, but proclaims that he is finally free.

Bates Motel (film)

In this spin-off film that retcons the revelations of the second and third film and changes the backstory between John and Norma Bates (named Jake and Gloria Bates in this film) prior to the events of Psycho, Mrs. Bates killed her husband when he was too busy running the motel and helping his customers, especially pretty ones. She then lost her mind and always stared out her bedroom window, wearing a black dress as if she was in mourning, while waiting for him to return. Twenty-seven years after the events of the original film, Norman Bates (Kurt Paul) is never released from the asylum and dies, leaving his motel and house to be run by his close friend and patient from the same asylum, Alex West (Bud Cort). However, the place was said to be haunted by the ghost of Norman's mother, threatening to kill anyone who comes to her property. While excavating the area around the motel, Alex and the construction crew find the corpses of Mr. and Mrs. Bates and put them back into the cemetery, though the haunts continued. It is then revealed that the haunting was a prank and Mrs. Bates' ghost was the bank manager, Tom Fuller (Gregg Henry), who tried to scare away Alex from taking a loan and renovating the motel.

Psycho IV: The Beginning

The fourth and final film in the series, also retcons the revelations of the second and third film, supplying that Norman's father was stung to death by bees, removing all references to Emma Spool and retelling much of Norman's and his mother's past from the original film. It is implied in the film that Mrs. Bates suffered from schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, which Norman inherits. The film also explains that Norman has been released from the institution and is now married. When Norman finds out that his wife, Connie (Donna Mitchell), is pregnant, he decides to kill her to prevent another of his "cursed" line from entering the world. He relents after his wife professes her love for him, however, and decides to rid himself of the past once and for all by burning down his mother's house. During this act, he sees visions of his mother mocking and tormenting him, but perseveres and destroys the house, finally free of his mother's voice, which demands to be let out.

Norma Bates (Bates Motel)

Norma Louise Bates (née Calhoun; previously Massett) is a main character in the A&E drama-thriller television series Bates Motel, a contemporary prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho, based on Robert Bloch's novel of the same name. Norma is portrayed in the series by Vera Farmiga. As in the novel and film, she is extremely possessive and protective of her son Norman and does everything she can to keep him to herself.

On the show, Norma's middle name is Louise. Her parents' names are revealed to be Ray and Francine "Frannie" Calhoun, and she describes her life with them as having been unhappy; her father was an abusive alcoholic while her mother was "sedated all the time." She was born and raised in Akron, Ohio.

In the pilot episode, Norma buys a motel in the coastal town of White Pine Bay, Oregon, and moves there with Norman (Freddie Highmore) following the death of her husband Sam Bates (David Cubitt) in Arizona. The motel's former owner, Keith Summers (W. Earl Brown) breaks into the Bates' house and rapes Norma. Norman intervenes and subdues Summers, but Norma kills him in a fit of rage. She later reveals that Sam was an abusive alcoholic and that Norman had killed him while in a dissociative state; she bought the motel and moved them away to protect him. A later episode reveals that Sam had raped Norma in front of Norman while in a drunken rage.

In this continuity, Norma has another son, Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot), who was conceived when she was raped as a teenager by her older brother, Caleb Calhoun (Kenny Johnson). Norma used Dylan's conception to escape from her troubled home life; she married her then-boyfriend, John Massett, and passed off her unborn child as his own. She would later divorce John to marry Sam, becoming estranged from Dylan and favoring Norman, her son with Sam, instead.

When Norman's sanity begins to deteriorate, Norma marries the town sheriff, Alex Romero (Nestor Carbonell), so she can use his insurance coverage to pay for Norman to be treated in a mental institution. While the marriage is at first merely a financial arrangement, they eventually fall in love. When Norman is released from the institution, he feels that Norma has abandoned him in favor of Romero. Driven over the edge with jealousy, he tries to kill himself and Norma by flooding the house with carbon monoxide while his mother sleeps. Romero arrives at the house in time to revive Norman, but finds that Norma is already dead. Norman later digs up her corpse and assumes her personality to preserve the illusion of her being alive.

Characterization

Norma Bates is not strictly a character in the novel by Bloch, and her presence is indicated only as a "ghost" voice and a corpse in the Psycho films.

To appease the press, Hitchcock claimed that his film, Psycho, would tell the story of "a young man whose mother was a homicidal maniac". In another teaser, Hitchcock allowed the leak of photos from the set of a director's chair emblazoned with the words "Mrs. Bates". There were individual photos of Hitchcock and every major cast member taking turns sitting in the chair, except for Anthony Perkins. Hitchcock claimed that, for the role of the mother, he considered casting a theatrical grand dame, such as Helen Hayes or Judith Anderson, who portrayed Mrs. Danvers in Hitchcock's 1940 film, Rebecca. Norma Varden, from Hitchcock's 1950 film, Strangers on a Train, had read the reports and lobbied the director for the role. To keep the plot of the film as a secret, Hitchcock started a hoax rumor about a casting call for Mrs. Bates.

To confuse the audience, Hitchcock hired six uncredited people to play the mother. Mrs. Bates was played by Mitzi Koestner, Anna Dore, and Margo Epper as body doubles; and voiced by Virginia Gregg, Jeanette Nolan, and Paul Jasmin (a friend of Perkins). The voices were thoroughly mixed, except for the last speech, which is all Gregg's.

Norma Bates was introduced as a living character in Psycho IV: The Beginning. Olivia Hussey was directly offered the role.

Portrayals

Virginia Gregg, Jeanette Nolan, and Paul Jasmin voiced the corpse of Norma Bates in Hitchcock's 1960 film adaptation of Bloch's novel. Only Gregg did Norma's voice in Psycho II and Psycho III. Alice Hirson provided the voice of Norma's corpse in Psycho IV: The Beginning. John Kassir voiced Norma's silhouette in a 1990 Oatmeal Crisp cereal commercial featuring Anthony Perkins reprising his role as Norman Bates. Rose Marie voiced Norma's corpse in Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake. Olivia Hussey portrayed Norma as a living character in Psycho IV. Vera Farmiga portrayed Norma as a living character in the TV series Bates Motel.

Film

Television