31 Nights of Halloween Horror part 23 - Psycho II

Psycho II
113 mins.
Dir. Richard Franklin
1983/USA

We all know the classic Psycho, an untouchable movie forever branded in our brain and heralded for creating modern horror and taking it out of gothic castles with monsters and putting right in our own backyard and making normal looking people the real monsters.  Plenty of books have been written about the movie, we don't need to get into it here.  But do you remember Psycho II?  Believe it or not it is a pretty decent movie and is better then it has any right to be.  Tonight we are checking into Room 1 of the Bates Motel as we revisit the underrated classic, Psycho II.

The film starts off with a reshowing of the infamous shower scene from the original Psycho.  I feel like it almost cheapens the movie by doing this.  It's as if it is saying, here is one of the most memorable scenes in all of cinematic history, even if you never saw Psycho you know this scene.  It is summing up this entire movie to this one scene, and that is unfair because Psycho is so much more then this one scene. But there you have it, a little refresher course in case you forgot.

Picking up over 20 years after the original, Anthony Perkins is back as Norman Bates, having not been charged for murder for reasons of insanity, he has spent the last 22 years in a mental hospital but seems to be fine now and is released.  Really?  This seems like a good idea?  A man that has murdered people and kept his mother's corpse in the house, seems fit to be released back into society?  But hey, its the 80s and everyone deserves a second chance, I'll go with that.  But where does his doctor played by Robert Loggia (Innocent Blood) drop him off at?  The same fucking house that he committed the murders and had his mother in!  Really?  No one thought maybe a little relocation, a fresh start might be a better thing to do?  But luckily for us, it is a good idea because the house looks great.  The Psycho house, one of those iconic places that even without seeing the movie, you know what it is.  Even the interior looks just how everything was left in 1960. 

So Norman Bates makes himself at home and it isn't long before he starts to become a little loose around the edges.  Seeing his mother's old room brings him flash backs and aawww, look Mother left him a note under the phone on the stand.  She'll be home late, he can fix his own dinner.  How sweet.  Except Mother's been dead for years, muwhahahahaha.  The question for us is, will Norman ultimately snap again and start killing people and blame it on his mother?  Even though Norman still owns the hotel, he gets a job at a local diner as a cook where he meets Mary (Meg Tilly) a struggling waitress who just got booted from her boyfriend's place and needs a place to stay.  Norman takes a liking to her and invites her to stay at his place.

Soon enough the bodies start piling up and we are left guessing who is doing the killing.  Has Norman gone Psycho and started killing again dressed as Mother?  Is Mother not really dead and she is killing people?  Is someone setting Norman up to make him go crazy and think he is killing people?  Writer Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child's Play) definitely weaves a plot that always leaves us guessing up until the very end where shit comes from left field and you are like, what the fuck?  But it's such a fun ride getting there, you don't mind all the twists and turns.

Clocking in at almost two hours, it is a long time to hold one's interest in what is more or less a slasher film, but director Richard Franklin (Patrick, Road Games) does a good job at it, and when all seems to be revealed, it turns out it is not.  Psycho II has some pretty big shoes to fill and like Amityville House II, it is actually a pretty good sequel.  It obviously does not surpass the original like Amity II does but it does take you by surprise in how good it is.  Psycho II hit during the 80s slasher craze and added plenty of scenes to keep those fans happy as well.  Where Hitchcock was all about being subtle and only suggesting things, never revealing.  Nothing is left to the imagination here.  You knew there had to be a shower scene, and this one has no problem showing Meg Tilly nude, where Hitchcock strategically hid all of Janet Leigh's naughty bits.  Hitchcock also only suggested the knife piercing the flesh, we only heard it entering and watched the blood go down the drain.  Not into Psycho II, we watchone some get stabbed right in the fucking mouth, BAM!

In some ways Psycho II discredits the artistry of the original, but it is successful at being an entertaining nicely shot movie.  If it has been awhile, maybe it is time you revisited it and if you never saw it, you might be pleasantly surprised how good it is.  Just don't compare it to the original.  Watch it for what it is and all will be fine.