Door, Screen and Threshold

Bates Motel Opening sequence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPQevjL5cTs

Bates Motel Season 4 trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUKHgaJYeDY 

Expanding on the story of Psycho, Bates Motel is about a young Norman Bates living with his mother, and him slowly turning into the psychopath that is seen in Hitchcock's Psycho. Within the series it has so many different elements of horror that is embedded within the everyday life of this family, some much more obvious than others. Within its current fourth series in progress, it is evolving into what many people have a familiar idea on in the film. The use of the door in this series is very important to the nature of the genre. Like in the film the setup of the main house near the motel is similar. There are many moments in the film where the spectator may not know you is at the door or if it even safe for a character to enter within a specific place. The spectator usually enters each episode with a pan across a specific area of the house, or the motel or somewhere Norman and his mother is, and is immediately engulfed within the problems of the characters and fears for them. The house and the doors of the house are like a character in itself. Sometimes it is used as a barrier between characters, and other times it is used to create a wall between the character and the spectator. The door is also something that is used to conceal what Norman is really doing when his is by himself in his room. What he thinks about and how insane he really becomes. The experience of entering the series is very stressful and quite frightening at times, because it is never known what is or how the characters are going to react to one another, in this case how Norman is going to react (without going into detail for those who have not watched the series). Even when watching the series on TV, where it is bigger, or on the laptop which is quite up close, it is an experience that is the same every time no matter where a person watches it. There is much more of a fear factor when watching the series on the laptop because it is very intimate. The screen and the spectator and in close proximity, where as if the spectator watched the series on TV, there is much less fear, but fear none the less, because of the fact there is space between the screen and the spectator. Just like the door itself being its own character, the house and the motel are as well. They bring the ‘Psycho’ out of Norman Bates in a way, because of the space that each character has. The opening sequence to the show is also very intense because it sets the audience up for something that they may or may not expect during the series. It enhances the fear factor and allows the minds of the spectators to wonder about the episode itself. One of the most interesting things about the series is that it becomes more and more like the film as it progresses, and the way it is done is that the doors become a safety neat or a trap for each of the characters. The way they have conveyed the story/back story to Norman Bates has been done incredibly well and well thought out.