Mister Bates

"Mother! Oh, God Mother! Blood! Blood!"

Went to Universal Studios about a year ago and the thing I remember the most was a recently added revived bit on the Bates Motel set. There's and actor playing Norman Bates walking out of 'Room 1" with a manaquinn dead body and putting it in the trunk of a car (a 1957 Ford sedan). Once he notices you are watching him, he chases the tram away with a huge knife. The actor they used did look noticeably similar to Anthony Perkins.

The particular day we were visiting Universal, there were also lots (and I mean lots) of Japanese tourists; consisting mainly of teenage girls. I swear I have never heard so many freakishly high-pitched screams in my life. Things got even more interesting when Norman chased the tram....

Oh, Norman. You are so full of kill...

He went so far as to climb a hill and surprise us by popping out from behind the bushes. We all got a much closer look a him that time. I could see his hair was a wig and his "knife" was a cheap rubber prop. The suspension of disbelief was nullified, but I give the actor full points for commitment as it was raining pretty hard that day as you can see. Of course, there was even more teenage screaming. Seriously, I think I have permanent hearing loss.

Some of cooler gift shop items were Psycho-related. They had one of those little ceramic, light-up versions of the Bates mansion. My wife collects those types of things, so I kind of thought about buying it. But they, as it the norm (see what I did there?) with theme park swag, were all ridiculously overpriced;. I did find a few online that were much cheaper.

There were many other neat things to see on the Tram Tour. The War of the Worlds "jumbo jet crash" set was really cool. I immeadiately noticed there no bodies in the wreckage. Not very realistic, but that probably would have been too intense for the timid (it is a family theme park afterall). And the Earthquake simulator thing was very convincing. Looking forward to going again someday. I hear Universal is building a Transformers ride, so maybe we can see that in a few years.