Psycho II (1983, Movie)

Format: Movie (Blu-Ray)
Director: Richard Franklin
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: June 3, 1983
Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Psycho is not the kind of film you'd expect to have a decent sequel. However, that's exactly what we get with Psycho II. Robert Bloch did write a Psycho II novel published in 1982. That novel in many ways was a critique of the slasher films that were big at the time. Seeing as Universal was making some decent money off of the current slasher craze, they wanted nothing to do with the novel so this movie is its own story.

The movie takes place twenty-two years after the original film. Since Norman was declared insane in the original film he technically wasn't charged with murder. Flash forward to the present day and it is determined that Norman has since reclaimed his sanity so he is released from the psych ward, much to the dismay of much of the public. This includes Lila Loomis (originally Lila Crane), the sister of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh's character who was murdered in the shower in the first film).

Norman goes back to his old house/motel. Soon he begins getting calls and notes from his mother again. It is unknown if Norman is slowly losing his sanity again or if someone is trying to frame him. He has a job lined up by the state as a cook at a local diner. While there he meets a girl there named Mary Samuels who ends up staying at Norman's house due to her having no where to stay. The plot has way too many twists for me to go any further, but I will say that this movie has a really solid story. It has quite a lot of twists which were all effective in catching me off guard and in retrospect all work together well and feel like they are properly seeded throughout the movie.

Psycho II has a pretty low body count. There are only two deaths in the movie before the final twenty minutes. Due to this the movie has a slower pace more reminiscent of the original movie than something that would come out in the 1980s. So make sure to go into the movie expecting as much.

The mystery in this movie is done very well from start to finish. Every time that I thought I knew what was going on another twist would happen which would through me off the track. I definitely didn't call the ending and I doubt many people called it correctly the first time either. Each of the characters fit just right into this ever evolving mystery.

Since Norman is the main character this time it is important that he is a likable character. The movie succeeds in this regard. It is mostly from his perspective so it gives the film an unreliable narrator where you are unsure whether everything you are seeing is true or not. The other characters are well done as well. Particularly Mary who feels three dimensional as she slowly develops to stick up for Norman.

Overall, Psycho II is a great sequel to the original movie. It isn't quite as good as the first movie but it is far better than most horror sequels coming out at the time. If you enjoy the original film at all then don't hesitate to give this sequel a look. While I doubt that the further sequels will be as good, I can hope.

Spoilers

There are at least four plot twists to talk about here. Mary being Lila's daughter threw me off guard but makes a lot of sense and explains how a lot of the things going on with "mother" were able to occur. Lila working with her daughter on this was seeded from the beginning and works well. Mary being hesitant and changing her mind about Norman is what I meant when I said earlier that she is a three dimensional character.

As the movie continued it seemed pretty cut and dry that Mary and Lila were the cause of this. Then about two-thirds of the way in I was thrown off when Lila was suddenly murdered. At the end this is payed off when it is revealed that the murderer of Lila was Norman's real mother. However, I feel like the idea that Norman's mother in the first film was not his "real" mother was not seeded early enough in this film. Either way, when this is all explained at the end it makes sense and works well.

One way or another it seemed as though everyone was killer in this movie. Right at the end when you realize that Norman hadn't actually killed anyone he goes and kills his real mother. This caught me off guard probably more than it should have. Either way, it was a nice horror ending that leads right into the eventual Psycho III.