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The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
1970 | Comedy, Horror
(The other) Young Frankenstein
At the start of the 1970s Hammer tried to relaunch both their main series with new leading men (Ralph Bates replacing Christopher Lee in this case); this was the only reboot which eventually happened. The basics of the Frankenstein story are (just about) retold; young Victor decides to make a man, if not of himself, then from some body parts.

There's no doubt that Ralph Bates could have been a brilliant Frankenstein, but not in a film with a script like this one's. The film attempts to appeal to a hip young audience by including cleavage by the yard and lots of sub-Carry On film humour; script is also thick-headed and repetitive. The moment Frankenstein's experiments included resurrecting a tortoise everyone involved should have realised there was a serious problem here. Not funny, not scary, not interesting, barely worth watching except for Hammer fans. They got Peter Cushing back for the next one.
  
Psycho (1960)
Psycho (1960)
1960 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Contains spoilers, click to show
I had never seen this film and just watched it for the first time a couple of days ago. Going into it, I was vaguely familiar with Norman Bates and who he was and what his story was. I haven't seen Bates Motel or read the book, so I was pretty surprised overall to not only enjoy this film, but have it keep me interested. I was surely convinced that by the end of it, Marion's sister was going to die too and then to find Norman's mother in the fruit cellar and have Norman come after her and then Sam save her, it was a rush and the perfect climax to the film. Then to have Norman's mother's voice at the end when Norman is just sitting, wrapped in a blanket, in an empty room - incredible. I'm not very familiar with Hitchcock's work but am excited to see what else he has to offer as I move through his filmography.
  
Bates Motel  - Season 1
Bates Motel - Season 1
2013 | Drama
Brilliant "before he was a psycho" alternative view of the Norman Bates story. This series sees the family move to a town with something of a corrupt underbelly. The series doesn't look to explore Norman's "tendencies" as much as I might have expected, but the rest of the peripheral action makes it an excellent standalone series without Norman in it!
We start to see something of the psycho emerge towards the end of the series.