Psycho 2
Alfred Hitchcock (perhaps unintentionally) is widely credited with inventing the âslasherâ horror movie with his 1960 masterpiece Psycho, a film which not only shocked and outraged audiences at the time of its release, but also is roundly considered to be the single best piece of work that Hitchcock himself ever produced, ironic enough since he worked mostly in the thriller / suspense genres. Such was the unheard of before or since impact of the film that it took nearly 20 years for its impact to be felt on the rest of the film industry, up to and including (obviously) John Carpenterâs Halloween, the success of which managed to set off a whole entire cycle of mostly low budget psycho killer flicks for rabid audiences to enjoy. So when the time came to pull it all back together to make a sequel to Hitchcockâs classic in 1983, the excitement of having cinemaâs ORIGINAL psycho killer coming back to the screen in the midst of the 80s horror boom seemed almost like a dream come true to many. Strangely enough, Anthony Perkins was almost on the verge of turning the project down which led to a possible contingency plan of recasting the Norman Bates role with Christopher Walken of all people and having it be a TV movie. What brought Perkins back aboard though, was the lure of playing Norman in a way that was different than the undisputed murderous bad guy of the original and instead humanizing him as someone who had been pronounced âcuredâ by the institutional system that he had been a part of and making the major story component be his actual sympathetic struggle to maintain his sanity despite an onslaught of old and new enemies looking to destroy him completely. Keep in mind that Perkins (a confirmed virgin at the time of the originalâs filming who was said to have not had sex with a woman for the first time until 10 years later at the age of 39 but who did have homosexual flings for much of that period before he got married to the mother of his children) had perfected the art of playing socially awkward misfits onscreen in many ways because he was one himself in real life, albeit somebody who could make those characters incredibly compelling to watch. The rarely mentioned fact that Perkins also suffered from real life mental health issues stemming from his own relationship with his mother only sealed the deal as to why he was perfect for the role of Bates having had such a personal connection to the characterâs issues in his own life. The fascinating sight of watching him play Bates especially with certain vocal patterns and mannerisms that only he could bring was what would make everything complete. The film begins with the shower death of Janet Leigh from the first film before quickly segueing into modern day depicting Norman having his day in court with the hearing where he is ordered to be released mostly on the word of his state psychiatrist (Robert Loggia), a guy who comes off as being more like someone wanting to take credit for his methods having âfixedâ such a notorious figure and win a prize for it rather than caring about whether the prognosis was truly warranted. Not everybody is particularly happy with this situation, least of all Lila Loomis (Vera Miles coming back from the first movie), the sister of the Janet Leigh character who continuously and loudly advocates that Norman is still homicidal and a danger to society and has a petition signed by several hundred people backing up this point of view. None of this is taken under consideration by the judge and Norman is free to go as Loggia (who talks and acts more like a social worker than a shrink) has him set up with a new job working in the kitchen at a diner and has made sure that the classic old spooky house has all its utilities still working. Just one problem though: The Bates Motel itself has been turned into a sex and drugs filled road house by the sleazy manager (Dennis Franz) who was placed in charge by the state after Norman was sent away and now that Norman (always the puritan) is back, he quickly fires Franz and sets off a mini feud with him as Franz makes it a point to say that at least the motel makes money with him and that the customers and clientele always wind up happy rather than dead. And thus the plot gets set in motion here as Norman starts getting prank calls and notes that convince him that his long dead mother (who of course was mummified in the first movie) is actually still ALIVE and somehow making her way back to him and naturally random murders start occurring as well which amazingly are NOT being committed by Norman but rather by somebody who is obviously trying to drive Norman crazy enough that he will start a new killing spree and / or find himself sent back to the looney bin where most likely they will NEVER let him out again. No points awarded for guessing that the most likely culprit in this campaign of terror against a mentally ill person who is having his rights violated is none other than Vera Milesâ Lila, for whom the adjusted portrayal and reimagining of this character is easily the most bold and daring thing about this sequel, taking the undisputed heroine of the first film who had âavengedâ her murdered sister and making her now into a coldhearted, revenge minded old woman every bit as terrifying in her fury as any incarnation of Mother Bates could ever be (keeping in mind that we never actually saw Norma Bates for real until Psycho 4âs direct flashbacks and that the twisted, distorted view we do have of her is mostly derived from Normanâs own fractured mind and not at all a fair representation of the woman herself). But as evil as the Miles character has become here, there is still every indication that yet another party has been stalking and tormenting Norman (and Lila) and that not all of the murders / prank calls / mysterious notes / unexplained events can be blamed on her. The film takes audacious chances with both the storyline and plot twists, nearly daring us to accept what we see happening as now canonized fact. When it comes to directing a sequel of this magnitude (one knows that Brian De Palma had to have been approached or at least considered), they chose Richard Franklin, an actual protĂ©gĂ© of Hitchcockâs back in the 1970s who besides doing an Australian slasher with a mild fan following called Road Games back in 1981, would wind up doing very little else of note in his career besides that and this, certainly making it seem that his creative and artistic choices here were strictly in the mold of copying what he THOUGHT Hitchcock would do with any given decision or situation (maybe he was holding seances between takes?). Several shots or setups clearly pay homage to the original, but at least the influence of the 80s slashers is at play here as well with a number of gory bits that would have never passed muster in 1960 including a knife kill in the mouth that comes out of the back of the head and Norman himself getting cut up to ribbons in the finale (including a blatant allusion to Christ). For the female lead / best friend / romantic interest role that was heavily considered for Leighâs daughter and Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis, we got Meg Tilly instead whom it turned out had NEVER even seen the original Psycho nor had any idea of its cultural impact which resulted in her showing disrespect towards Perkins on the set in such a way that Perkins reportedly became upset and asked that she be replaced, but since the budget was tight and she had already filmed half of her scenes, his request was denied. Tilly would go on to not even attend the premiere and later state that the filming of this movie was the worst experience of her life due to working with both Perkins and director Franklin. No surprise then that her performance here is as robotic as robotic can be, but then again anybody familiar with Meg Tillyâs work can attest that (unlike her far more talented and daring sister Jennifer) acting like a robot is really her specialty. As a waitress at the local diner Norman works at whom he winds up taking home with him (with a secret of her own), Tilly disappears into the scenery whenever sheâs onscreen with Perkins and just lets him do his thing, playing Bates as a persecuted, tormented soul this time and scoring huge points with it as they even successfully set up for another sequel to continue the 80s run of this character for whom the psycho slasher films originated with and even took its name for the subgenre from his franchiseâs title, a feat that none of the other superstars of horror can claimâŠ
8/10