The second Psycho movie some 23 years after Alfred Hitchcock’s classic first movie this one is set 22 years after the events of the first movie. I would assume this was a case of how can we squeeze some money out of the fans of the original film. I will get to the plot in the now typical middle section of these but first I will tell you that by today’s standard’s this had a tiny budget of $5m and went on to make $34.7m at the box office, which was enough of a profit to go onto make another 3 movies. Critically it was not that well liked by the other two gauges I use with a 6.5/10 from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes gang giving it a 59%, which is above halfway, I guess. Onwards to the plot.
Set 22 years after the events of the first movie and Norman has been in a mental institution for all of that time. He is deemed cured of his insanity and accepting that his mother is dead and can now finally move on to this situation. Sam Loomis’ sister in law or sister, sorry I can’t remember the connection exactly, but she is linked to the victims from the first movie is very aggrieved by his release and is not afraid to show her views. She believes he should never be released and definitely not be allowed to return to his home and business which to be fair to her was the scene of all of his crimes. Still seems weird to me but there you go. He goes back to the motel and to his home on the hill next door. They have organised a job for him at the café close by as well, they must be exceedingly kind at the correctional facilities in the states. He has a doctor that comes to check on him and things seem to be going well he is cooking at the café and making friends with the staff. One waitress in particular has taking a liking to him too, although much younger they seem to have a good friendship. One day at the café a guy starts making remarks to Norman who struggles to keep calm and this guy is making threats also. Then Norman starts to receive phone calls from his mother as well as notes being left around for him from mother as well. The guy from the restaurant turns up at Normans house and ends up stabbed repeatedly in the back as he tries to leave, although you don’t see who the murderer is. Norman is starting to feel a bit insecure and ends up taking the waitress in as a lodger in a spare room of the house. She seems to grow even more fond of Norman over those times and tries to help him calm down and stay sane. His doctor does some digging and discovers this woman who has been taken in a helping Norman is in fact the daughter of angry woman from the first sentence (Sam Loomis’s sister?), he tells Norman that and says he should throw her out of his house. He says she is fine and that she can stay. Is she now lined up to be Norman’s next victim, is Norman actually going nuts again, is it all a trick and Norman is the victim, is it all just a set up to have framed for another murder. Who knows... well I do as I’ve seen it, but I will try not to give this away.
I believe I am one of the few that actually enjoyed this movie and it might be because it opened the door to more story to follow. It may well be because I like Anthony Perkins and quite frankly, I have not really seen him in anything else and I like to know he is getting a run out every now and then. Oh yes, he was in Black Hole wasn’t he! Sorry I digress, this is a simple movie which is trying to be clever and it nearly pulls it off as there are twists and turns and I gave away one of the bigger twist revealing that the friend is actually related to woman that hates Norman and is out to prove he is still a psycho and there wouldn’t be much of a movie franchise without a psycho in it and he appeared in four of the movies so he can’t be all that nice and friendly can he. This movie was one of the first to cast the villain of the previous movie as kind of a victim in the sequel and that is why I have a fondness for it. Its not got great special effects it is a clever story and is a slow burner but still entertaining for me. Would I recommend it, well that depends on whether you enjoyed the original enough to be desperate for more then give it a watch, if you loved the first movie and expecting another great twist and turn of suspense and intrigue then I should really recommend something else maybe stick around for the lower numbers in this list instead.
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