Anthony Perkins Directs Himself: Psycho III

Psycho III (1986) is a slasher film and the third film in the Psycho series. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates for the third time and also directs, his first time behind the camera. The script is by Charles Edward Pogue. Set a month after Psycho II (1983), it finds Norman still running the Bates Motel with the preserved corpse of Emma Spool, the woman who claimed to be his real mother, propped up in the house. Then a suicidal former nun who reminds him of Marion Crane checks in. Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey and Roberta Maxwell co-star, and Carter Burwell wrote the score, one of his first. Universal released it on July 2, 1986. It grossed $14.4 million in the US on an $8.4 million budget, the lowest theatrical gross in the series. Reviews were mixed, and Perkins earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actor.

At a glance

Release date	July 2, 1986 (US)
Director	Anthony Perkins
Writer	Charles Edward Pogue
Based on	Characters created by Robert Bloch
Starring	Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey, Roberta Maxwell
Music	Carter Burwell
Runtime	93 minutes
Rating	R (US)
Budget	$8.4 million
Box office	$14.4 million (US)
Franchise	Psycho: sequel to Psycho II (1983); followed by the TV film Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

Plot summary

It is 1983. Norman works at the Bates Motel and lives with the preserved body of Emma Spool, a waitress who told him she was his real mother after committing several murders. After a month with Spool missing, Norman’s former boss and the local police are starting to wonder. Norman hires Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey), a sleazy musician desperate for cash, as assistant manager. Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell), a Los Angeles journalist writing about released serial killers, suspects Norman is killing again and tries to interview him at the diner.

Their talk is cut short when Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid) walks in. She is a young, unstable former nun who looks like Marion Crane, the woman Norman killed twenty-two years earlier. Her suitcase even carries the initials “M.C.” That night, “Mother” enters Maureen’s bathroom to kill her and finds she has already cut her wrists. The shock brings Norman back to himself. Maureen, delirious, mistakes “Mother” holding a knife for the Virgin Mary holding a crucifix. Norman takes her to the hospital, and after she is released they begin a romance. Meanwhile, “Mother” kills again: a woman Duke picked up at a bar, and then a guest who arrived with a crowd of football fans.

Spoiler section: the truth about Emma Spool

Duke finds Spool’s body and tries to blackmail Norman. Norman knocks him out and drives him and the dead guest toward the swamp. Duke wakes and attacks him, and the car plunges into the water. Duke drowns, and Norman swims to shore. Maureen returns to the motel, but when “Mother” shouts at Norman, he loses his grip on her and she falls down the stairs, impaled on a statue’s arrow. Tracy confronts Norman, dressed as “Mother,” and tells him the truth: Spool was his mother’s sister. She loved Norman’s father, killed him when he chose her sister, and then kidnapped young Norman. Norman smashes the corpse, breaking Mother’s hold. As the sheriff takes him away, Norman says he’ll “finally be free,” but he smiles at the camera, holding Spool’s severed hand.

Production and behind the scenes

Filming ran from June 28 to September 10, 1985. Perkins said he chose to direct because he found Pogue’s script “fascinating.” He said: “I liked how wild the script was, and how tight it was at the same time. It’s the perfect blend of the reasonable and the unreasonable.” He added that the scenes were “so well written, they directed themselves,” which made the script a good fit for a first-time director.

Perkins hired Carter Burwell after enjoying his music for Blood Simple. He wanted something more modern than Jerry Goldsmith‘s traditional score for Psycho II. Burwell recorded most of the score on a Synclavier electronic music system, adding women’s and boys’ choirs and percussion. Universal wanted pop songs to sell the film to the MTV generation and rejected several attempts, including a track Burwell made with Danny Elfman using samples of Bernard Herrmann‘s original Psycho strings. In the end, Universal let Burwell turn a theme from his score into an instrumental electronic pop song, “Scream of Love,” co-written by saxophonist David Sanborn and released as a single.

Release and reception

The film was first scheduled for Valentine’s Day 1986 but opened on July 2. It made $3.2 million in its opening weekend and $14.4 million in the US overall, the lowest theatrical gross in the series. At the 14th Saturn Awards, Perkins was nominated for Best Actor and the film for Best Horror Film.

Reviews were mixed. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Perkins a “very creditable director” and said the film “expresses its appreciation of the Hitchcock legacy without seeming to rip it off.” Variety said it “has its moments—about 20 minutes’ worth—but the rest is filler.” Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times thought it “better in most respects than II” but said “it feeds off the original without deepening it.” Paul Attanasio of The Washington Post called it “a playful, artfully made horror movie.” Rotten Tomatoes lists 60% of 35 reviews as positive. Its consensus says it makes “a persuasive — and blackly funny — case for itself as a sequel.”

Legacy and influence

Psycho III was the last theatrical film in the original series. Perkins played Norman one more time in the Showtime TV film Psycho IV: The Beginning (November 1990), which drops the backstory twists of the two sequels. The film has nothing to do with Robert Bloch‘s own third Psycho novel, Psycho House, which came out in 1990. Shout! Factory released a special edition on DVD and Blu-ray in September 2013. The series continued with Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake in 1998. It began with Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho (1960).

Trivia

It was Perkins’ feature directing debut.
Burwell’s “Scream of Love” was released as a 7-inch single, with dance remixes by Arthur Baker among others.
It has been released four times on DVD, including a 2007 triple feature with Psycho II and Psycho IV.
Maureen’s initials, M.C., match Marion Crane’s, which is what first unsettles Norman.
The motel guests in the middle of the film are in town for a football game.