by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 01, 2008

Anthony Perkins attempts to recreate the witty thrills of the original "Psycho," once again playing Norman Bates, a schizophrenic killer who's assumed the personality of his dead (and psychotic) mother. But when Alfred Hitchcock directed the original thriller, he created a cinema classic that, 26 years later, demanded a follow-up that was tricky and challenging.

"Psycho III" opens with an allusion to "Vertigo," another famous Hitchcock thriller which ends with a blonde woman in a high tower, a nun, and a very startling death. In "Psycho III" the blonde woman becomes a piece in a different puzzle, as she leaves the convent for a different destiny at the Bates motel. Anthony Perkins himself directed this movie, giving his character a hint of romance and spirituality. When Norman assumes the personality of his psychotic mother to kill the troubled former nun, he discovers she's already attempting to kill herself, and Norman Bates is her only hope of salvation!

As in "Psycho II," Bates is a sympathetic figure who's victimized by a cruel world. Just as Norman's forming a healthy relationship, a drifter named Duane threatens him with blackmail (over the murders Norman already committed). A pesky reporter also suspects new homicides at the notorious Bates motel. And soon the town's sheriff has come for a visit. Will he notice that there's blood from a corpse in the ice machine?

Ultimately the tension of the original film is replaced by these less satisfactory plot points. The audience knows Norman has already relapsed into a schizophrenic killer, so the movie hides fewer genuine surprises. In the original "Psycho," Norman told a visitor to the hotel that "Mother's not herself tonight," but it was only in the film's climax that they realize that he'd meant that literally. (Norman himself had assumed his dead mother's personality.) In this film, the jokes are more obvious, as Norman confides to his new visitor that "We all go a little mad sometimes."

Since he's returned to his serial-killing ways, Norman is obviously a much less sympathetic character. Still, this movie shows Norman was a chance to escape his madness and truly connect with another human after all. He grows as a person, and the audience even sees him confronting the memory of his mother. Unfortunately, this movie's final trick is to show that Norman himself is not immune to nasty surprises.

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