Being Film #15 for Hooptober 2023
“Pick a film from the year you turned 10” they said. Easy enough. I had been meaning to get to Psycho II for more years than I can remember. For years it had been been the subject of reconsiderations; cries of “underrated” and “hidden gem” being floated about with abandon. Finally sitting down with it, watching Scream Factory’s great transfer on blu ray I’m happy to say they’re right on the money: It’s not the masterpiece the original is, but it has a beating heart all its own, and despite a few small nitpicks here and there Norman Bates’s return to his home is a delight, both as homage and as a nasty little slice of murder on its own.
THE QUICK SUMMARY: 22 years later Norman Bates is a free man. Having been deemed fit to return to society Bates returns to the infamous motel and house, this time with a new job at the local diner and a patient doctor (Robert Loggia) looking out for him. But others aren’t as supportive: Marion Crane’s sister Lila (Vera Miles) for one. Soon Norman is seeing and hearing his mother everywhere; but is his psychosis returning, or are others trying to drive him back to the crazy house. Beautiful waitress Mary may hold the key to his salvation or destruction as this thing goes full tilt Hitchcock…and man, what an ending!
I can’t imagine what it would feel like to follow up the Master of Suspense on one of his greatest films, but Richard Franklin is a solid choice. The man knew and was friends with Hitchcock, and one viewing of his 1981 thriller Roadgames should be more than enough to justify his skills. Working off a script from Tom Holland, Franklin makes a few capitulations to the trends of the day: some of the kills come off as anemic, a tip of the hat to slashers when the film really wants to focus on the psychosis and tension, but for the most part hews close to the original in tone. Franklin gets into the inner thinking of Norman Bates, and as things escalate the focus is always on Norman, visibly fracturing before our eyes.
Which brings us to the performances. Anthony Perkins may have been initially reluctant to step back into the shoes of his most famous role, but he kills it in Psycho II. Norman 22 years later is fascinating, and Perkins shows us both his growing madness and his desperation to cling to some sense of normalcy. It’s helped that he’s buoyed by Meg Tilly as Mary, a local waitress who may be more than she appears. She’s great, having to do a lot of shifts her character’s motivations and ultimate loyalties come into focus. Unfortunately, not everyone else fares as well. Dennis Franz essentially plays the same sleazy char after he played constantly during this time, and Robert Loggia gamely tries to play against type as Norman’s caring doctor, but ultimately falls flat.
Still, the film works (thought almost 2 hours we could maybe have trimmed a bit). Camera work is great, and the ending… it’s a nasty, bravura piece of filming, everything moving and tilting and bringing into sharp focus that even though there may have been no plans to continue the story of Norman Bates after his incarceration in 1960, the fact that Franklin and Holland did is a cause for joy.
Cinema Dual 
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