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Psycho II (1983)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 12/02, 9/04, 8/07, 6/19

Psycho2
8/07: It's understandable Psycho II wasn't going to top the original, but that didn't stop Anthony Perkins from trying to.

In fact, it became a bigger box-office hit than Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, yet it's not a good movie. Of course, it's twenty-two years later, and Norman Bates is coming home. So, what else is new? When I finished the movie, I felt like I was in a drunken stupor despite the fact that I don't consume alcohol of any kind.

Granted, Psycho II is one of the stupidest pictures I've seen. Nothing makes any sense whatsoever. I can't fathom why Marion Crane's sister would travel from Arizona to California to waste her time on some guy after all these years (22!). Norman Bates had paid his dues to society, so why bother making things worse than they have to be? How the plot unfolds tells me it's the work of a genius madman. The problem? Norman Bates is a perfectly dumb creature. That's why I can't buy the story.

As far as the sequel goes, the acting is somewhat decent, but the running length has eventually gotten to me. If half an hour could be cut out, it would've fared better. There's been a lot of waiting for anything to happen. The scariest moment is when Meg Tilly took a look through the peephole and saw somebody's eye. Interestingly, here's a piece of trivia from IMDb:

"Meg Tilly was never allowed to watch any sort of television as a child, and so had never seen the original Psycho and was unaware of its significance. She didn't understand why the press was giving all the attention to Anthony Perkins for his comeback role in this movie, and one day on the set, Perkins overheard her say, 'Why is Tony getting all the attention?' Perkins was upset, didn't talk to her during filming, and recommended that she be replaced, even though half of her scenes had already been shot."

All in all, Psycho II is garbage.

6/19: It's been twenty-two years since Norman Bates graced the silver screen, and he's back for some more in Psycho II.

There's no way he would've been let out of the mental institution, not after what happened in 1960. Strangely, I'm only aware of four murders: Norman Bates' mother, her lover, Marion Crane, and Private Detective Arbogast. There's a mention of seven, so I guess sometime between the first two and the last two Norman killed three people who were possibly girls as heard from a rumor at the end of the original.

There are a couple of scary moments. It's when the mother was seen through the window upstairs at the famous Bates' house which looks great as ever. The other one is when Meg Tilly looked through the peephole from the other side of the bathroom and somebody's eye, all of a sudden, appeared. Is that Anthony Perkins', I wonder? The killings are effective but gruesome by Hitchcock's standards.

If Norman Bates was left alone, his mental state wouldn't have crumbled quickly. Then again, it can happen sooner or later when he has become bored of life. The psychiatrist should've met with Norman Bates at least two or three times a week to ease his transition to the real world after being institutionalized for so long.

As I was about to give the movie a '7', the last ten minutes ruins it and is thus unnecessary. That's a classic case of trying too much. So, I suppose it's perfectly all right for the old lady to show up and nonchalantly say that she's Norman's mother and that his other mother was her sister. Upon hearing this, Norman just stands there and says, "Oh, that's cool. Well...want some tea?"

On the other hand, Anthony Perkins hasn't missed a beat and is at ease playing Norman Bates. Vera Miles is back to her ball-busting ways, but it's stupid to think she would stoop so low to bait Norman Bates after twenty-two years. Already a dead giveaway by using Marion Crane's alias when she checked into Bates Motel, Meg Tilly helps make the implausible story work. Handshake, great tan, and all, Robert Loggia is Robert Loggia. Dennis Franz is too much and is therefore quickly disposed of.

All in all, a top 20 finisher at the box office in 1983, Psycho II is a decent sequel to the original but gets ruined by the additional ten-minute scene at the end.