181) Psycho III (1986) - The Psycho Series Continued

"I never went away. Don't you know that by now? You can't get rid of me. I'll always be with you Norman. Always."

Director

Anthony Perkins

Cast

Anthony Perkins - Norman Bates
Diana Scarwid - Maureen Coyle
Jeff Fahey - Duane Duke

Hugh Gillin - Sheriff John Hunt
Roberta Maxwell - Tracy Venable

Robert Alan Browne - Ralph Statler
Gary Bayer - Fr. Brian

Lee Garlington - Myrna
Donovan Scott - Kyle

I was surprised with the previous "Psycho II" being a decent enough sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror movie "Psycho." It wasn't great, but it passes. 

I didn't hold as much hope that "Psycho III" would even be a passable movie. Generally, that's not how sequels work, especially when it comes to third movie installments. 

What else could writers possibly do with Norman Bates's story? You can only make the same movie so many times before audiences start growing bored. 

In this third movie, Anthony Perkins portrays a much more torn Norman Bates. He clearly wants to lead a normal life with someone. This is a logical place to put Bates. However, he's not free from his demons. Rather, he's still tormented by his mother.

Speaking of his mother, this third movie continues where the second one left off. 

Bates killed Emma Spool in part two - his coworker at the diner who told him she was his real mother. Now, he's preserved her corpse and keeps her in his mother's bedroom. 

Meanwhile, a mentally unstable Catholic nun, Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid) attempts suicide by threatening to jump from the convent's bell tower. Maureen is blamed when another nun tries to save her only to accidentally fall to her death from the tower. 

Maureen is booted from the convent, and hikes through the desert to nearby Fairvale. On the way, she's picked up by a young drifter named Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey). 

The ride isn't too bad, though Maureen is really uncomfortable. When a rainstorm breaks out, Duke stops his car to wait it out. He then tries to take advantage of Maureen but she refuses his advances. 

So, he kicks her out of the car, forcing her to continue walking to Fairvale in the rain. 

Back in Fairvale, Spool has been missing for a month. 

Norman Bates's former employer, Ralph Statler (Robert Alan Browne) along with the police are searching for her. 

Duke arrives at the Bates Motel and asks Norman to hire him, which he does. 

Maureen also arrives in town, exhausted and hungry. She walks into the diner where Norman works. He's taken aback as she resembles Marion Crane, whom he murdered in the first movie. He also notices her initials on her suitcase - M.C. This makes Norman panic. 

Meanwhile, Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell), a journalist from Los Angeles, is in town to do a story about serial killers being released from prison. So, she wants to interview Bates. 

Maureen checks in to the Bates Motel but panics when she finds Duke working there.

Having Maureen at his hotel causes Bates to succumb to the urge to be his mother once again.

Later, dressed in his mother's clothes, he enters Maureen's room and finds her in the bathtub attempting suicide. 

Maureen, delirious from the loss of blood, hallucinates and thinks Norman dressed as mother holding a knife is the Virgin Mary holding a crucifix.  

Bates, however, snaps back into his right frame of mind. 

He rescues Maureen by taking her to the hospital. 

After Maureen is released, she and Norman start to get romantic. 

Later that night, Duke picks up a one-night stand named Red (Juliette Cummins), only to kick her out of his room after they're...you know...done. 

Angry and dejected, Red goes to a payphone to call a cab. But a person dressed as Norman's mother stabs her in the phone booth. 

The next day, a bunch of tourists show up at the motel for some big football game. Most of these tourists party hard and get drunk, except one guest named Patsy Boyle. While in the bathroom, she's also murdered by mother. 

That night, Norman finds Patsy's body and doesn't know what to do. So, he hides her body in the motel ice chest.
Sheriff Hunt and Deputy Leo show up the next morning looking for Patsy. 

Meanwhile, Tracy snoops around Emma Spool's apartment where she finds the motel's number scribbled on a magazine. 

She talks to Maureen, and tells her about Norman's past, which freaks her out. 

So, Maureen goes to speak with her priest, Fr. Brian (Gary Baye), who it seems to me just blows her off. 

Having dodged a huge bullet with the sheriff and deputy not finding Patsy's corpse in the ice box, Bates panics when he finds Emma Spool's corpse is missing. Whoever took her body left a note. 

He goes to see Duke who attempts to blackmail him with threats that he'll report Norman to the cops. 

When Duke isn't looking, Norman clubs him with an ashtray, and then beats him with a guitar. 

He then drags Duke's and Patsy's corpses into a car, just like he did with Marion's body in the first "Psycho," and intends to drive the car into the swamp behind the motel. 

But Duke wakes up as Norman is driving and attacks him. Norman loses control of the car, which still submerges into the swamp. 

Norman barely escapes, but Duke goes down with the car. 

Maureen realizes she really loves Norman, and returns to the motel to be with him. 

They have a romantic moment at the top of the staircase inside the house, before mother shouts at Norman, startling him.

This causes Norman to lose his grip on Maureen. She falls down the stairs and dies as a result. 

Tracy walks in and sees Maureen's dead body at the bottom of the stairs as Norman, dressed as mother, stands at the top of the steps holding a knife. 

As he as nowhere to go, Tracy explains the truth about Emma Spool and his real mother. 

What happens next is Norman's way to free himself from his mother's influence. 

The movie maintains an unsettling creepy factor throughout the entire experience. 

Anthony Perkins and Diana Scarwid in "Psycho III."

There's an apparent effort to make this another decent and intriguing follow-up to Alfred Hitchcock's original movie. And Anthony Perkins makes his directorial debut here. He clearly respects the source material, trying to make this a good movie to any degree. And he succeeds in being a good director. 

Despite Perkins sitting in the director's chair, there's not enough in this movie to make it good. It's an attempt to make something new and terrifying but ends up doing the same thing as before all over again. 

For instance, the movie tries to recreate the famous shower scene from the first "Psycho" with Maureen attempting suicide in the tub. It's a lame scene, with Maureen thinking she's having a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And then Norman saves her. The movie just falls flat despite some interesting decisions here in there. 

I have no idea why this movie exists other than being a cash grab. It's a disjointed mess full of weird scenes and pointless plot points. I took nothing away from this movie that would enhance or add something new to the series.

Maureen is a completely useless character. As she and Norman become romantic, especially as he initially thinks she resembles Marion Crane, I was genuinely curious how this romantic involvement would effect Norman. Would it change him? Would he stand up to mother? Would it "cure" him? 

The answer is...there is no answer. It doesn't do anything for Norman. She adds nothing to the story in the end, other than being another accident to give someone the false premise that he hasn't changed nor can change. 

Bates is more neurotic than in previous movies. That is, Perkins plays it up much more than before. 

The whole premise with Emma Spool, starting at the end of part two, feels convoluted. She didn't have to thrown in the premise of claiming to be Norman's real mother. She could have simply resembled his mother which would have caused him to kill her the same way and set her up as his mother. 

After all, Maureen Coyle resembling Marion Crane from the first movie ignites old feelings within Bates. 

This movie picks up one month later after the events of "Psycho II." 

However, the sheriff says that Bates came out of incarceration after serving 22 years rather than being out of a mental hospital after that same amount of time as stated in the second film.

Anyhow, this installment feels more scatterbrained and unbalanced - no pun intended. 

Overall, it's an unnecessary sequel. 

180) Psycho II (1983) - The Psycho Series Continued

"It's starting again." 

Director
Richard Franklin

Cast

Anthony Perkins - Norman Bates

Vera Miles - Lila Loomis

Meg Tilly - Mary Loomis
Robert Loggia - Dr. Bill Raymond
Dennis Franz - Warren Toomey
Hugh Gillin - Sheriff John Hunt
Claudia Bryar - Emma Spool

You'd think a sequel to Hitchcock's groundbreaking horror movie "Psycho" couldn't possibly be any good. It's almost a travesty to think someone in Hollywood would dare piggyback off of the master of horror, Alfred Hitchcock. Well, someone did. And the bastards did it three years after Hitchcock's death. 

No doubt Hitchcock would've raised hell at the idea of a sequel to his masterpiece of a psychological horror, a precursor to slasher films. It's one of a kind, and there hasn't been a movie like it since. 

I went into this sequel anticipating it to be a terrible cash grab. 

"Psycho II" begins with the infamous shower seen from the original "Psycho." Much to my disappointment, it excludes the image of Marion Crane's blood swirling down the tub drain. 

It has been 22 years since Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) murdered Marion and was committed to a mental institution. 

Now, he has just been released although Marion's sister, Lila (played again by Vera Mills), who is filled with loathing towards Norman and rightly so, is adamantly opposed to his release. 

Norman's doctor, Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia), doesn't want him to move back to his mother's house overlooking the Bates Motel thinking it'll trigger him. But Norman does. He also lands a job as a cook at a nearby diner.

Norman meets a young waitress named Mary (Meg Tilly) at the diner, who gets kicked out of her boyfriend's place and has nowhere to go. 

So, Norman invites her to stay with him at his mother's. 

All the furniture, by the way, in the home is covered in sheets, and belongings are all boxed up. 

When Norman returns to the Motel, he finds that the new manager, Warren Toomey (Dennis Franz), is a drug dealer who uses the rooms for sleazy and unsavory activities. So, he fires Toomey on the spot. This leads to Toomey often harassing Norman in retaliation. 

Norman seems to be acclimating back into society well enough, but he soon starts receiving mysterious phone calls, and finds strange hand-written messages wherever he goes, that seem to be from his mother.

Of course, Norman thinks Toomey is behind it all. 

In one scene, the two cross paths in which the drunk Toomey tries to pick a fight with Norman. 

Later, Toomey meets his end when a dark hooded figure murders him. 

Just as before, Norman starts hearing voices coming from his mother's house just like before. 

At one point when he walks into his mother's bedroom, he finds it strangely set up exactly the way it was setup 22 years ago. 

During this confusing moment, a noise lures Norman into the attic where he winds up locked in.

Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates in 'Psycho II.'

Meanwhile, a pair of teenagers sneak into the basement to make out. A woman hidden in shadow sneaks up on them and tries to kill them. One of the teens gets away but the other doesn't. 

When Mary returns to the house, she finds Norman up in the attic. 

He shows Mary his mother's bedroom, only to find it back in the state of neglect as it has been for years. 

The sheriff shows up to inquire about the murdered teen. Mary tells him that she and Norman were out walking at the time the surviving teen claimed her boyfriend was murdered.  

Later that night, Mary meets up with her mother who turns out to be none other than Lila. Both of them are behind the mysterious phone calls and notes in an attempt to drive Norman insane and ultimately have him committed back into the asylum. Lila even dressed as Norman's mother and rearranged her bedroom.

Mary's friendship with Norman, however, starts growing as she feels pity for him. She doesn't believe Norman is capable of committing murder. Rather, she thinks someone else is hiding in the house, especially as Norman was locked in the attic when the teenager was killed. 

After Dr. Raymond figures out the Lila and Mary are mother and daughter, he suspects they're behind all the calls and notes. 

While Lila is fueled by her hatred of Norman, and goes to some crazy lengths to get revenge, she doesn't quite cross the line into insanity. It's pure hatred. 

But Norman doesn't believe Dr. Raymond. Instead, he thinks his real mother is behind it all. Still. he questions Mary about all this. And she admits she has given up her role in Lila's scheme. Lila, however, has no plans to stop. 

The plot deepens when Lila is murdered by a shadowy figure while retrieving her mother costume from the cellar. 

Also, police find Toomey's body and want to talk to Norman about it. Mary is terrified what might happen as a result, and tries to convince him to run away. Of course, running won't look good for Norman. 

While she's trying to convince him, the phone rings. Norman answers and starts talking to "mother." 

Mary listens in on another phone, but no one is talking to Norman. Still, the conversation he's having indicates his mother is commanding him to kill Mary. 

She quickly runs to the cellar to dress up as his mother and command him to hang up the phone. 

Dr. Raymond sees her and thinks he's catching her in the act of framing Norman. He grabs her, and in a moment of surprise, Mary accidentally stabs him through the heart.

Norman then spots his "mother" standing over Dr. Raymond's dead body. This causes him to snap and to threateningly approach Mary, backing her into the cellar. That's where she finds Lila's dead body. 

Of course, she thinks Norman killed her, and raises her knife to stab him in outrage. 

In that instance, police barge in and see Mary, dressed as Norman's mother, right about to stab him. They open fire and kill her. This crime scene leads police to think Mary was responsible for the murders and for attempting to seek revenge on Norman.
Later, Emma Spool (Claudia Bryar), another waitress who worked at the diner, visits Norman and admits to him that she's his real mother. 

Supposedly, Mrs. Bates was her sister and adopted him when Emma was institutionalized. 

She admits that she was responsible for all the murders, attempting to protect Norman from anyone who tried to hurt him. 

Norman doesn't know how to take this. He kills Emma and carries her body to his mother's room. Then he starts talking to himself in his mother's voice. 

The movie is one plot twist after another. 

Believe it or not, "Psycho II" isn't that bad of a movie. Of course, it doesn't compare at all to Hitchcock's original. It does have its issues. 

Meg Tilly as Mary in 'Psycho II.'

The setup is a bit forced starting with Norman quickly befriending younger Mary and inviting her to stay at his home. 

Then it turns out she's not only Lila's daughter, but her stay with Norman seems to be all part of a plan. How'd they know Norman would invite her in? Was it all a coincidence? Did Lila simply seize upon the opportunity when it presented itself? Or, maybe I misread the situation. 

Thankfully, the storyline doesn't lead to the same scenario as part one. Writers still changed things up a bit. Occasionally, odd angles are used to turn up the hint of surrealism and unsettling mood. It's thankfully not overused, and does work more or less. 

Despite all the twists and plot points, it's not a bad sequel. It plays out rather well, and at a decent pace. It pulls the audience in through just enough intrigue and suspense.

"Psycho II" doesn't have the intensity, nor the brilliant and daring writing seen in "Psycho." Still it somehow manages to work on its own. In other words, it gets by.

The character Tilly is really half-assed at first. Her intentions aren't clear. 

Other performances are a bit too weak and not written well. Toomey, for instance, seems too over the top, being upset enough to focus all his energy on getting back at Norman for letting him go from a dead-end job at the motel that's barely surviving. 

Anthony Perkins picks right back up Norman's likeability despite his darker side and secrets without effort, playing on the audience's emotions. He didn't forget how to be Norman Bates after all those years. 

Perkins continues to be a sympathetic character, but not quite like he is in the first movie. He strikes me as more confused and lost rather than being a person tormented by his deceased mother. Still, Perkins takes the role seriously, and gives it the respect it deserves.  

The effort to make "Psycho II" a compelling and worthy sequel is clearly present. 

Of course, it's not the groundbreaking thriller the original "Psycho" remains to be. But part two is surprisingly a decent follow-up to Norman Bates's story years after the events of part one.  

There are a few call backs to the original but nothing that goes out of its way. 

The story starts off predictably, but takes a welcoming insanity-driven turn to make the film it's own story that goes towards a logical conclusion. 

Vera Miles returns as Lila Loomis, though she plays Lila Crane, Marion's sister, in the original film. John Gavin plays Sam Loomis in the first film - Marion's lover. I guess after her sister's murder, Lila and Sam hooked up? 

This first sequel to Hitchcock's masterpiece of horror may make the master director spin in his grave, but regardless, it's an entertaining passible movie, all things considered.