The original “Psycho” still sends shivers. (
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The creators of “Bates Motel” may have fooled around with time and integrity, but they left one thing alone: the forbidding three-story Bates house itself, set back on a hill that overlooks the 110-foot-long, one-story motel.
Hitchcock originally built his Victorian Gothic house in 1959, as a two-thirds scale, 40-foot tall, two-sided structure (the third and fourth sides were added for the “Psycho” sequels) on the Universal Pictures backlot, with the motel at the base of its weed-engulfed front staircase.
The “Psycho” house moved to various places at Universal over the years, and has appeared in films including 1981’s “Money Problems” and TV series such as NBC’s “Go On.” A popular stop on the Universal tram tour since 1964, the house now sits on a spot adjacent to the plane crash scene from the 2005 Steven Spielberg adaption of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds.”
Over the course of six weeks last summer, a “Bates Motel” crew of more than 100 — headed up by production designer Mark Freeborn — converged on a piece of landfill outside of misty Vancouver, British Columbia, to build a full-scale, three-sided replica of the original house for exterior shoots, as well as a fully-functional replica of the motel for both interiors and exteriors. (House interiors are shot at a Vancouver studio.)
Needless to say, the structure drew a lot of attention from passersby. “I was astonished at how many people, even before we were finished, recognized the structure for what it was,” Freeborn says. “By the time we were nearing completion, the security guys were saying we were getting upwards of 50, 60 people a day stopping by.”
One element that’s missing, however, is the mansard roof. To save money, says executive producer Carlton Cuse, the second floor has been capped with a flat roof; the ornate third floor is added digitally in post-production. Still, it’s an easy building to recognize. “It’s just one of those funny things, how people stopped and identified it, even though it’s not quite complete,” he says.
In re-creating house and motel, Cuse says he was “inspired” by the work of Christopher Nolan and his work with the “Dark Knight” reboot of the Batman movie franchise. He believes the iconography of the original “Psycho” house is key to drawing viewers.
“If you don’t have that, you’re sort of dislodging yourself from the franchise too significantly,” Cuse says. “If you have the physical environment, you can sort of tell your own story in the same way that Christopher Nolan had a guy with a bat suit and a Batmobile and Alfred the butler and had some of the iconographic elements of the franchise.
“But then Nolan culled his own story that had its own theme and moral point,” Cuse adds. “I thought that was the right way to go.”
Both Cuse and Freeborn are especially satisfied they hit the mark in the architectural sense: Neither one wants to stay at either the house or the motel. “Would I want to live there? Hell no — never!” Cuse says.
While proud of his team’s work, Freeborn has his limits. “I have a personal guideline in a situation like that,” he says. “When you don’t wanna even touch the walls, you know you’ve hit the right mark.”
Only time will tell if viewers will check into the motel themselves and stay for more than one night.