Bates Motel (film)

Bates Motel
Ad from TV Guide, 1987
Genre	Comedy Drama Horror
Distributed by	NBC
Directed by	Richard Rothstein
Produced by	George Linder Ken Topolsky
Written by	Richard Rothstein
Starring	Bud Cort
Music by	J. Peter Robinson
Cinematography	Bill Butler
Editing by	Dann Cahn
Production company	Universal Television
Language	English
Original channel	NBC
Release date	July 5, 1987
Running time	90 minutes

Bates Motel is a 1987 television movie spin-off of the 1960 suspense/horror film Psycho. The film is about Alex West, a mentally disturbed youth who was admitted to an asylum after killing his abusive stepfather. There he befriends Norman Bates and ends up inheriting the infamous Bates Motel. The film was originally produced as a pilot for a TV series set in the Bates Motel; however, it was never picked up by any network.

In early 2012, A&E announced that a new TV series titled Bates Motel was in development at the network; it was later confirmed that the show was picked up for a 10-episode first season. However, being a prequel to the film, it has nothing to do with the 1987 TV pilot.

Plot

Alex West (Bud Cort) roomed and became close friends with Norman Bates at the state lunatic asylum for nearly 20 years. After Bates' death, Alex finds that he is named in Norman's will as the inheritor of the Bates Motel, which has been vacant since Norman's arrest. Alex travels to Bates' California hometown (which this film has renamed Fairville from the original film's Fairvale) and with a little help from teenage runaway Willie (Lori Petty) and local handyman Henry Watson (Moses Gunn), Alex struggles to re-open the motel for business, only to have strange things happen.