Psycho II **** (1983, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz) – Classic Movie Review 5862

Director Richard Franklin’s suspenseful 1983 first sequel to Psycho (1960), set 22 years later, is an unexpected success. Vera Miles is back as Lila Loomis, whose sister Marion (Janet Leigh) was of course one of the original victims.

Lila tries to stop the rehabilitated stormin’ Norman Bates (a returning Anthony Perkins) after he is freed following 22 years of psychiatric care to rampage again at the old dark house and Bates Motel, now being run by Warren Toomey (Dennis Franz).

The killings start again when Norman is released from a mental institution on the advice of a psychiatrist, Dr Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia). Norman takes a job at the local diner, where he meets a young waitress, Mary Loomis (Meg Tilly), who accepts his offer to stay at the Bates house. Norman struggles to cling on to his sanity when confronted by apparitions engineered by Miles’s Lila.

Writer Tom Holland, basing his script on the characters created by Robert Bloch,  has a firm grip on what this kind of chiller takes, a careful balance of several parts — mystery, horror and homage. The accent is on creepiness, not blood, though it does go into overdrive at the end.

It is Perkins’s film and he is again magisterial and unforgettable in the iconic role of his life.

Writer Tom Holland plays the deputy sheriff.

Also in the cast are Hugh Gillin, Claudia Bryar, Robert Alan Browne, Ben Hartigan, Lee Garlington, Tim Maier, Jill Carroll, Chris Hendrie, Michael Lomazow, Robert Destri, Osgood Perkins, Ben Frommer, Gene Washington, Robert Traynor, George Dickerson, Thaddeus Smith, Sheila K Adams and Victoria Brown.

Bloch’s sequel novel Psycho II was published in 1982, but the film’s plot is entirely different, dumping the idea of Norman Bates escaping from the mental institution to go to Hollywood to stop a film based on his life.

Virginia Gregg provides the voice of Mrs Bates.

Psycho III (1986) and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) followed.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5862

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