Viewers need to prepare because "Bates Motel" will be darker and creepier as it enters its third season.
The recently released first trailer of A&E's suspense-thriller series shows Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) looking through a peep-hole, spying on a new female motel guest named Annika Johnson (Tracy Spiridakos) while she is undressing in an adjacent room. Then, he smiles as he covers the peep-hole and walks away without making a sound.
The trailer is an obvious ode to Alfred Hitchcock's epic thriller "Psycho," which the series is loosely based from.
A&E's horror drama aims to show a "contemporary prequel" to Hitchcock's legendary film adaptation of the novel with the same title written by Robert Bloch. The film was released in 1960, and it was followed by a series of sequels and adaptations over the years. The TV series is given a modern touch by featuring the present era, and setting the motel in a fictional town called White Pine Bay, Oregon rather than in the original's Fairvale, California.
"Bates Motel" season 1 revolved around Norman and his mother Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) who bought the motel immediately after his father's death. The two experienced their first problem when the motel's former owner forced himself into the premises and sexually assaulted Norma. Her son saw this and knocked the man out to protect her. Norma then killed the man and told Norman to hide the body somewhere in a lake. Town sheriff Alex Romero discovered that a man was missing, that is why the mother and son duo needed to do everything to keep the sheriff from discovering their crime.
In the second season of the show, Norman had to struggle with the death of his teacher Blair Watson (Keegan Connor Tracy). His bother Dylan Massett (Max Thieriot) also found out from their mother that he is a product of incest.
"Bates Motel" season 3 is expected to air in March 2015.
