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.