Anthony Perkins will always be Norman Bates in my heart, and the original "Psycho" will always be one of the great suspense thrillers of all time. Having said that, I watched "Psycho II" again the other night and as much as I admire some of it, it falls two thousand peaks below the original (but less so than the bloated Van Sant remake).
Perkins is once again a tanned - but older - Norman, as he is released from a mental institution after spending 23 years there for murder. The man is still as loony as ever and returns to the dreaded, ominous house across from the Bates Motel. Life has changed dramatically for poor old Norman. Firstly, he starts to work at a greasy spoon kitchen. Secondly, a sleazy owner (Dennis Franz) runs the Bates Motel now, occupied by oversexed teens, drug addicts, drunks, etc. And to make matters worse, Norman has invited a demure, clumsy waitress (Meg Tilly) to stay at his house as a roommate. But now Norman is getting phone calls from someone purporting to be his dead mother! Who is it? Could it be the high-strung, vengeful Lila Crane (Vera Miles returning from the original)?
"Psycho II" has some tension, generated mostly from Perkins, who does solid work as an older, kinder Norman. I particularly like the moment when he slices bread while staring intensely at the knife. The direction by Richard Franklin is diverting, and there are numerous high-angles of the Bates House and one exceedingly wide-angle lens shot that shows the house to be more dangerous than inviting.
In fact, there is a lot to savor in this film, but it never jells (as Martin Balsam's Arbogast said in the original). During the second half of the film, it borders on the slasher-film mentality (including a gratuitous scene where two teens make out in the basement of the Bates House). One too many killings slices the psychological impact that I am guessing writer Tom Holland was after - to expose Norman as something more than having a murderous Oedipal Complex.
The cast is uniformly perfect (including Vera Miles, Meg Tilly and Robert Loggia as a doctor), the visuals are scarily effective, the music occasionally spooky (though it does lack the late composer Herrmann's thrust). But it is an undernourished sequel, lacking the cleverness, depth and madness of the original. And showing the infamous shower scene from the original does little justice to this movie.
Overall, this is a decent sequel that would not make Hitchcock roll over in his grave in shame. Maybe he would just twitch a little.
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