It was 1987, arguably the pinnacle of the decade. The Psycho series just had its third entry and the series was in a good place at the time... so, for some reason, they pitched an idea for another entry in the saga...

"Hey, what if the sequels never happened and Norman isn't even in it?!"

Who will be the main star then?

"Oh, that's easy! It'll be Norman's protege in the institution!"

So already, we're off to a strange start, but okay. So we have some awkward looking guy inheriting the Bates Motel and we spend about two-thirds of this movie with our new owner Alex West as he fixes up the motel.

Honestly, not much happens in that time as he really is just going through basic procedures on how to reopen the motel and all the hoopla that goes with it. He meets a few people along the way, such as Gregg Henry who gives him a loan, Moses Gunn who helps him design the place, and Lori Petty who helps him run the place. Pretty standard fare, but passable.

At least they use the same sets, so we're still in the classic Psycho house and they try to utilize all the locations, but the movie is pretty lite on the horror. We have a vague idea that the place is haunted, and we deal with a little bit of backstory with Norman's parents and their missing bodies.

Then, the final act goes on a tangent that has almost nothing to do with our protagonist, but rather a slightly supernatural subplot involving a depressed (and sexy) aerobics instructor who joins Jason Bateman for a dance. It's at this point that you start to wonder if you're watching an episode of some anthology series, but it'll come as little suprise that this tv movie was a failed pilot.

Toward the last few minutes, things return to the main premise in what could be considered a real Scooby Doo ending.

Speaking of Scooby Doo, remember one of the endings in Wayne's World when they unmask Benjamin and it turns out to be Old Man Withers, played by Carmen Filpi? Well, Carmen Filpi has a scene with another iconic hobo actor George Buck Flower. To see them both playing bums in the same frame makes this a trash epic in its own right.

So overall, the movie ain't bad, but it's barely barely barely got anything to do with horror. If the series took off, I'm not quite sure where it would go other than in some preposterously random subplots, but I'd give 'em a watch. It's also fun to read the imdb trivia page, which claims that Anthony Perkins watched the film and described it as "just terrible".