BIG READ: Hitchcockian BATES MOTEL Debuts on A&E Tonight

The Bates Motel set out in Aldergrove on 272nd Street is the spitting image of the 12-room Seafarer motel and Gothic house set from Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic Psycho, except for the missing top of the Bates house which was CGIed in post-production for tonight’s premiere on A&E.  This contemporary prequel  focuses on a younger version of Psycho movie killer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) in a coastal Oregon town called White Pine Bay and explores his relationship with his unhinged mother (Vera Farmiga) as he approaches his evil destiny. Is this the relationship that turns Norman into a killer who stuffed his mother?

Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse penned most of the 10 episodes which he described as a cross between Friday Night Lights, Lost and Twin Peaks at his South by Southwest panel last week in Austin. The premiere is racking up rave reviews so tune in tonight to spot the local location and play voyeur on this creepy-good bastardization of motherly love.  Or as the show’s poster put it – Man’s Best Friend is His Mother.

Freddie Highmore, pictured filming in Horseshoe Bay below, has a look in his face reminiscent of his role as young Peter in Finding Neverland, the boy who inspired the iconic Peter Pan. I wondered if he could go dark, but have no doubt after seeing various teasers of the show.

Max Thieriot, photographed filming with Highmore in Horseshoe Bay below, is Norman’s  bad-seed half-brother Dylan, and Olivia Cooke and Nicola Peltz (cast in the new Transformers) are his schoolmates.

Nestor Carbonell (of Lost’s eyeliner debate fame) and Mike Vogel, photographed filming in Steveston below, co-star as sinister Sheriff Romero and Deputy Shelby, who has his own secrets and is attracted to Norma.

Bates Motel filmed  its Woodchuck Festival (so very Twin Peaks) at an overnight shoot in Fort Langley last October.

Check-in for Bates Motel is at 10 p.m. tonight on A&E.