Continuity mistake: When Harrison Ford is watching his wife laying in the bathtub ready to drown, the camera shoots her head several times between cutaways to Ford and the running water. Watch her head relative to the top of the tub in the various shots. In some her head is much higher than in others yet her body never moves.
Continuity mistake: When Claire first sees the ghost, Norman rushes in and Claire grabs and hugs him. Her hand was just in the tub yet as she's hugging Norman, her hand is dry. She would have left some kind of a wet mark on Norman's shirt.
Continuity mistake: When Claire is in the tub after her husband gives her a drug to immobilise her, watch her hair in various shots. It keeps changing position even though she is unable to move it out of the way with her hand.
Continuity mistake: Claire takes a basket of flowers over to the neighbor's house. Notice when she first goes to the side door the flowers take up most of the basket and are arranged a certain way. When she turns and is spooked by the car in the driveway, the flowers are arranged differently and do not take up as much of the basket.
Continuity mistake: In one scene when Michelle Pfeiffer is in the garage looking at the photo album, we see her looking at a picture of her daughter who is in a black vest. The camera angle then changes to one looking at her from across the room and we see her turn the page. We then see her half turn a page and the camera angle changes to over her shoulder to where we see her turn the rest of the page over, but if you look closely at the page before you can see it is the picture of her daughter in the black vest again.
Continuity mistake: When Michelle Pfeiffer is walking up to her door towards the middle-end of the movie, Michelle puts the key in the door to unlock the door, but she never unlocks it. Then the lady next door comes up and scares Michelle and when they go in, the door was never unlocked but somehow Michelle still got in.
Continuity mistake: When she is paralysed and drowning in the bath she tries to use her feet to remove the plug. Watch her big toenail closely, it varies in length, indicating they probably used a foot double.
Continuity mistake: When Claire goes to the Feur's house and sees Mary's shoe on the porch, she goes to pick it up. When she does, it is in a different position than when she originally saw it.
Continuity mistake: When the bathtub is shown full, it is filled perfectly to the rim, which means the tub is level. When Claire is being drowned in the tub by Norman, the water is clearly deeper at one end of the tub, indicating that the tub is slanted.
Continuity mistake: When Claire gets the box and necklace out of the lake, she sees the necklace and lays it down on the open box. She goes to get the phone and then Norman quickly appears. She then later has the necklace on in the tub.
Continuity mistake: When Claire is in the bath, paralysed from the drug Norman gave her, and the water is rushing in, her head changes position: At first, her head is below the waterline, and then it is above the waterline - then Norman slips and hits his head - and then her mouth, nose and eyes are below the waterline.
Continuity mistake: When Claire hears her neighbour crying, she calls out to her, and the startled woman dashes off to the left, so Claire (of course) dashes off to the right, but, when we next see the neighbour, she is at the right.
Continuity mistake: At the end, Norman and Claire are in the truck, which smashed into the river. Norman has less blood on his face than in the next shot, where he has a lot.
Continuity mistake: The first time Michelle Pfeiffer sees the tub (approx 35 minutes in) full to the brim, she walks up to it and the camera angle is from the tub to her front. She rolls up her sleeve, then with the camera angle change to her back, she approaches the tub, and the sleeve is unrolled as seen in the reflection in the water. Then she rolls it up again.
Continuity mistake: When Norman puts Claire, who is paralysed, into the bath, her right arm is underneath her, but as the water fills the tub, her arm comes free.
Answer: There's no rule about how a step-father is referred to. Caitlin may simply not consider him a father figure to remain close to her real dad. Many step-children call their step-parent by their first name, regardless of how long the parents have been married. Most likely this is a plot device so that the audience isn't confused about or doesn't forget that Norman is not Caitlin's real father. Some may be offended by a father killing his biological child's mother. It makes Norman less attached to either Claire or Caitlin.
raywest ★
I am not trying to be rude, but have you seen this movie? You say that Caitlin might be close to her real dad. He is dead. Claire was "touring with a baby" after he died, and then she met Norman. Hence why I found the situation a bit odd. Norman has been in Caitlin's life since she was a "baby."
Azalea
I saw the movie some years ago and don't remember every small detail. However, my main point was that calling Norman by his first name was a plot device to keep the audience focused on him not being Caitlin's biological father. This kept his character more detached from Claire and Caitlin, and made him less sympathetic. It showed an emotional/personal divide existed between Norman and Claire and her daughter. He has less resistance in killing Claire if they did not share a biological child.
raywest ★