Psycho II (1983) is a psychological slasher film directed by Richard Franklin and written by Tom Holland. It is the first sequel to Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho (1960). Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates. Twenty-two years after his arrest, Norman is released from a mental institution and goes home to the Bates Motel, determined to live a normal life. Then notes from “Mother” start appearing, and people around him start dying. Vera Miles reprises Lila Loomis, with Meg Tilly and Robert Loggia co-starring. The story is Universal’s own and has nothing to do with Robert Bloch‘s 1982 novel of the same name. Made for $5 million, it grossed $34.7 million and received generally positive reviews. Psycho III followed in 1986.
At a glance
| Release date | June 3, 1983 (US) |
| Director | Richard Franklin |
| Writer | Tom Holland |
| Based on | Characters created by Robert Bloch |
| Starring | Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia |
| Runtime | 113 minutes |
| Rating | R (US) |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $34.7 million |
| Franchise | Psycho: sequel to Psycho (1960); followed by Psycho III (1986) |
Plot summary
Over the protests of Lila Loomis (Vera Miles), sister of Marion Crane, Norman Bates is declared sane and released. Against the advice of his psychiatrist, Dr. Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia), he moves back into the house behind the Bates Motel and takes a job at a diner. He offers a room to Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), a young waitress with nowhere to stay, and fires the motel’s sleazy manager, Warren Toomey (Dennis Franz), for dealing drugs.
Then Norman starts getting phone calls and notes from “Mother.” His mother’s room appears exactly as it was twenty-two years earlier, and he is locked in the attic. Toomey is killed by a figure in a black dress, and a teenager who sneaks into the cellar is stabbed to death. Norman begins to doubt his own mind. Mary, though, has come to believe that he really has changed.
Spoiler section: the ending
Mary is Lila’s daughter, and the two have been staging the “Mother” messages to drive Norman back into the asylum. When Lila goes to fetch her costume, she is murdered by someone else. Mary, dressed as Mother to stop Norman’s breakdown, accidentally kills Dr. Raymond. She is shot by the police, who then blame her for all the murders. Later, Emma Spool, another waitress at the diner, tells Norman she is his real mother. She says Mrs. Bates was her sister and adopted him while Emma was institutionalized, and that she has been killing to protect him. Norman kills her, carries her body to Mother’s room, and begins speaking in Mother’s voice again.
Production and behind the scenes
Bloch’s 1982 novel Psycho II satirized Hollywood slashers. That concerned Universal, which decided to make a different story of its own and hired Holland to write it. Franklin, an Australian director who had studied Hitchcock’s work and visited him on the set of Topaz, was hired on the strength of his Hitchcock-inspired thrillers Patrick and Roadgames. It was his American debut. Producer Hilton A. Green, an assistant director on the original, worried that Hitchcock might not have approved of sequels. He sent the script to Hitchcock’s daughter, Patricia, who gave her blessing and said her father would have loved it.
The film was first planned as a made-for-cable production. Perkins initially said no, but agreed after reading Holland’s script: “It was really Norman’s story.” Before he signed, the studio had explored recasting, and Christopher Walken was considered. Holland later said that securing Perkins is what moved the film to a full theatrical release. Jamie Lee Curtis, daughter of the original’s Janet Leigh, was sought for Mary before Tilly was cast. John Gavin could not return as Sam Loomis after being appointed US ambassador to Mexico. Filming ran from June 30 to August 13, 1982, on the Universal lot. The 1960 house set was still standing, but the motel had to be rebuilt. Set designers found original props, including the stuffed owl and raven and the brass hands from Mrs. Bates’s bedroom. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the score, opening with a re-recording of Bernard Herrmann‘s “The Murder.”
Release and reception
Psycho II opened on June 3, 1983, at No. 2 behind Return of the Jedi, with $8.3 million from 1,448 theaters. It went on to gross $34.7 million. Variety called it “an impressive, 23-years-after followup.” Vincent Canby of The New York Times compared it to “a couple of precocious film students” playing “with artifacts found in the Hitchcock mausoleum.” Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it “a travesty masquerading as a sequel,” objecting to its treatment of Miles’s character. Roger Ebert found it suspenseful and better than the average slasher but too willing to cheat with its plot. Siskel and Ebert both gave it thumbs down on television.
Later critics have been warmer. John Kenneth Muir called it “a great film on its own merits.” In Empire, Kim Newman called it “a smart, darkly-comic thriller,” noting that its “wittiest dark joke is that the entire world wants Norman to be mad.” It holds 67% on Rotten Tomatoes and 54 on Metacritic.
Legacy and influence
Psycho II launched the Psycho sequels. Perkins played Norman again in Psycho III (1986), which he also directed, and in the TV film Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), which drops the backstory twists of the two sequels. Its central idea, a Norman who truly wants to be well and a world that won’t let him, turned Norman into someone audiences root for. It also changed the character’s history by suggesting that Mrs. Bates was not his biological mother. In 2015, Holland was candid about the trade-offs: “We should have called it something other than Psycho… What we did to Norman Bates and Lila Loomis was criminal.” He added, “Outside of that, it was wonderful.” For later reinterpretations, see Psycho (1998) and the Norman Bates character page.
Trivia
- Oz Perkins plays the young Norman Bates.
- John Williams was considered as composer before Goldsmith, a longtime friend of Herrmann’s, was chosen.
- Goldsmith’s rejected Norman theme was later used in Twilight Zone: The Movie.
- The Fairvale town square is Universal’s Courthouse Square, later famous from Back to the Future (1985).
- Bloch and Franklin had shared panels at a 1981 science-fiction film convention in Melbourne.
Related links
- Norman Bates and Marion Crane (characters)
- Psycho franchise
- Psycho (1960) and Psycho (1998)
- Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles (cast)
- Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bloch