by Brett Hardel

Created on: July 15, 2008

First-time director Anthony Perkins had wanted to film this in black and white like the 1960 original, but Universal refused. It might have looked good that way. Well, never mind. With a tagline that "Norman Bates is back to normal, but Mother is off her rocker again", and filmed in the summer of 1985, this respectable second sequel written by Charles Edward Pogue (picking up a few months after Psycho II) finds Norman hiring sinister drifter Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey) as the day clerk, and becoming involved with troubled nun Maureen Coyle (Diana Scarwid) who arrives at the motel. Maureen fled her convent after an unfortunate accident and reminds Norman of another blonde who isn't taking showers anymore and Mother isn't happy, making it clear the girl's life is in mortal danger. Meanwhile as nosy reporter Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell) starts hounding Norman for a story on rehabilitated murderers and tries to warn Maureen of Norman's past, a group of football rowdies back for their high school reunion descend on the Bates Motel, and Sheriff Hunt (Hugh Gillin) is again calling on Norman to ask about some missing persons, namely those last seen at the Bates Motel. Though dismissed by Sheriff Hunt as a busybody, Venable does discover some secrets of Norman's and returns to the Bates Motel...

Like Alfred Hitchcock, Perkins allows himself macabre humor and some amusing one liners. He also sets up a lot of his camera shots the same way; the film is beautifully lensed with an astute sense of lighting patterns and good establishing shots. I guess he paid attention to the Master. Virginia Gregg returned to lend her voice as "Mother". More sensuality and violence than the first sequel and a shorter running time (20 minutes) but is paced pretty well. Perkins defended the elevated violence as this is a tragedy more than a slasher film, and that the murders are not just senseless killings. Curiously, we never visit the fruit cellar in this installment. Reviews were generally mixed-to-negative and the film's box office failure devastated Perkins. Plans for a Psycho IV were quickly cancelled (though a made-for-cable Psycho IV: The Beginning would materialize in 1990). Who better to direct Norman than Norman himself?

The Universal DVD only includes the theatrical trailer, and the film is also available on on a Universal Triple Feature with Psycho II and Psycho IV: The Beginning.`

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