Watch The Bates Haunting For Free

That was an excellent one.

Don't Believe the Hype

As Good As It Gets

Blistering performances.

First of all, this has nothing to do with Norman Bates or the hotel in Hitchcock's classic. The title is to get your attention and it is advised to store up some of that attention. Agnes Rickover(Jean Louis O'Sullivan)is probably your average teen, although her dad is the local sheriff(Robert Haag). Agnes is in attendance like many others at opening night of the Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride. Agnes will witness her best friend's death caused by a fiery spectacle gone awry. A year has gone by and Agnes as spent the time obsessing what happened. A murder investigation found no foul play and even her father thought the case was open and shut. The troubled teen decides to take a job at the Haunt to search for the truth before more victims die "by accident".Also in the cast: D'Arcy Webb, Zachary Fletcher, Dante Zucca, Dawn Sobolewski, Bam Margera and Randy Bates.

Maybe its due to my seeing this movie immediately AFTER having the misfortune of watching "After Darks Film:The Haunting of Whaley House", but I did not find this movie to be near as crappy as some have opined it to be. In fact after having watched what is a very real crap-fest "The Haunting of Whaley House", I actually rather enjoyed "The Bates Haunting". Don't get me wrong this is indeed a very much B-grade horror flick, but its definitely one that has enough redeeming qualities to hold my attention throughout, as well as the movie as a whole made complete sense. The actors did a fine job of playing each of their respective roles, the gore scenes are done very professionally and would rank right up there with the quality special effects of some of the grade A-horror movies. It had a beginning, middle, climax, and an end that left me feeling satisfied with the overall movie.Maybe the fact that I had just watched the REALLY-pathetic-in-EVERY- SINGLE-WAY-movie, "The Haunting of Whaley House", that had me going into "The Bates Haunting" with very little expectations, but whatever the reason I can tell you that this film was miles apart from that pathetic garbage, and offered more than enough entertainment that left me totally satisfied at the conclusion of the film. I even took the time to REwatch "The Bates Haunting" the next day to see if my opinion of it changed and/or if it would even be tolerable for a complete repeat viewing...and I can tell you that Yes, it did hold up, I watched the entire movie again,and had no change of heart as to how I felt about the film going into without having had the horrible misfortune of viewing "Whaley House" immediately before hand.To me, that says an awful lot due to the fact that there are quite a few "good" horror movies that just don't hold up in repeat viewings, whereas "Bates" absolutely did!

A year after her best friend Lilly was roasted in a freak accident at The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride, Agnes reluctantly takes a job at the yearly Halloween attraction's concession stand. But before the park even opens, the bodies begin to pile up, so Agnes seeks to find a connection to Lilly's death and the new string of murders.I went into "The Bates Haunting" knowing virtually nothing about it, expecting the absolute worst... and was pleasantly surprised by it. Don't get me wrong, this is unquestionably direct-to-video fare (bad acting and shoestring effects galore) but there's a slick look, a few decent performances (leading lady O'Sullivan ain't bad and Fletcher devours the scenery as semi-retarded redneck Junior Bates), lots of funny moments and one-liners, a little T&A, some gore (though there's an annoyingly high ratio of old-school cutaways in lieu of practical/CGI effects) and a nice twist (not unpredictable but unexpected). Casual moviegoers will doubtlessly hate it, but the film's quirky enough that it could develop a small cult following.If you're seeking a big connection to the Universal-owned Norman Bates "Psycho" franchise (as the cover suggests), you'll be utterly disappointed... though there's more than a couple references to Norman/Mother and the basic plot is the same as Robert Bloch's novel "Psycho House" (murders occur at the opening of a Bates Motel theme park attraction). It's really a shame that they didn't utilize that book's story - it would've made a much better movie. "Jackass" fans will also be disappointed by the blink-and-you-missed-it appearance of Bam Margera (in a real commercial for the park?) and a mildly amusing but only slightly longer scene with the late Ryan Dunn as an annoyed customer in an empty pizza place.In the end, "The Bates Haunting" is a thinly-veiled commercial for the Pennsylvania tourist attraction (presumably starring local actors) which features shockingly little of the park, but if you're in a frame of mind to enjoy an innocuous low-budget horror-comedy, there are certainly much worse ways to waste 75 minutes of your life.

I'm a lifelong horror fan, and there's a lot out there, especially streaming, that you can be spending your time watching. A lot of it is pretty horrible. I can assure you this one is not as horrible as those movies, and is a good time.Don't go into this wanting to take everything seriously. The Bates Haunting has more of a tone like the Hatchet movies - old school styled horror, can laugh at itself, and hits the ground running so you're never bored watching it. Kind of like Hobo with a Shotgun but not all "LOOK AT ME!!!" about everything.What's worse than a boring horror movie? Nothing. Even that, that you're thinking right now as you're reading it. Trust me, I've seen a lot of boring horror movies.I can go on and on about The Bates Haunting and why you should watch it, and in turn, bore you out of watching it. I'm not gonna do that! I can boil everything down into one line that will make or break you wanting to watch:TWO PEOPLE GET EATEN BY A COMBINE HARVESTER.If you can't appreciate that, what are you doing reading reviews about horror movies? Go play POGs with the neighbor kids or something instead. They still make those, right?