Truth be told, I\u2019d never bothered to see Psycho II<\/em> until last week \u2013 probably for the same reason that I didn\u2019t watch Jaws 2<\/em> until fairly recently, as the concept of making a Psycho<\/em> movie without Alfred Hitchcock seemed about as silly as making Jaws<\/em> without Steven Spielberg. (I\u2019ll confess that I had, however, seen Jaws 3-D<\/em> more than once in my younger days, but only because it featured Lea Thompson in a bikini. In 3D.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n So imagine this critic\u2019s surprise when Psycho II<\/em> turned out to be not just a cynical cash grab, but rather a worthy attempt to reckon with the original picture\u2019s legacy and cast a surprisingly sympathetic eye on the plight of poor Norman Bates. (Not as big a shock as the first film\u2019s shower scene, but close.) The sequel starts out unpromisingly, replaying Janet Leigh\u2019s watery fate as an oddly edited and re-scored teaser, skipping the iconic shot of blood running down the drain and shifting into color to announce that we\u2019ve arrived in the then-present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tried for the first film\u2019s murders and found not guilty by reason of insanity, Norman is released from the mental hospital now that doctors have deemed him back to normal. His kindly shrink (a warm, against-type Robert Loggia) explains that due to budget cuts there are no halfway houses or caseworkers to ease Norman\u2019s transition back to society \u2013 a sizeable plot hole filled by the Reagan administration\u2019s abysmal record with mental health institutions \u2013 and soon he\u2019s on his own again at the Bates Motel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Norman\u2019s none too happy to find the place has been turned into a no-tell, hourly den of iniquity by the sleazy interim manager \u2013 Dennis Franz in his full dirtbag mode familiar from Brian De Palma pictures \u2013 so he sets about getting it up and running right again with the help of a mysterious diner waitress Mary (Meg Tilly) who\u2019s affectionate advances toward our gawky innkeeper seem at once ill-considered and less than genuine. There\u2019s always been something just a bit unnervingly off<\/em> about Tilly. Unlike her voluptuous older sister Jennifer, who resembles a naughty cartoon come to life, Meg was often cast for her eerie affect<\/a> in stuff like Agnes of God<\/em> or Abel Ferrara\u2019s Body Snatchers,<\/em> and would soon be no stranger to these sort of belated sequels, playing the missing Mulwray sister\/daughter in The Two Jakes<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Someone\u2019s messing with Norman, slipping him rude notes signed by his mother and popping up in windows wearing his mom\u2019s old clothes. Either that or he\u2019s cracking up again. Or maybe it\u2019s a little bit of both, a possibility that courses through every delicate gesture of Anthony Perkins\u2019 beautiful performance, returning to the role that (for better and worse) defined his career. Psycho II<\/em> was originally developed as a project for cable television \u2013 see, studios used to have a sense of shame about these things \u2013 but made the jump to theatrical when Perkins expressed unforeseen interest in revisiting the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jamie Lee Curtis was courted for Tilly\u2019s part, a perhaps too-clever inside joke considering it was her real-life mother that Norman stabbed in the shower. Fright Night<\/em> and Child\u2019s Play<\/em> writer Tom Holland\u2019s screenplay hinges on at least one big twist too many, but he commendably makes a go of trying something new instead of merely rehashing beats from the first film. Road Games<\/em> director Richard Franklin was brought over from Australia for his Hollywood debut. Perhaps wisely, he doesn\u2019t try to ape Hitchcock\u2019s showmanship, opting for a more workmanlike approach. (The obvious dream choice would have been De Palma, who had just a few years before made his own version of Psycho<\/em> with Dressed to Kill<\/em>. Composer Jerry Goldsmith doesn\u2019t try to replicate Bernard Hermann\u2019s shrieking strings, instead using sad, swelling melodies that sound uncannily like Pino Donaggio\u2019s scores for De Palma.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s most effective about this sometimes clumsy picture is that the world doesn\u2019t really want Norman to get well. Characters are constantly taunting this sick man as if trying to bait him into living down to their worst expectations. By flipping our perspective to see one of cinema history\u2019s most famous monsters as a tortured protagonist (maybe) more sinned against than sinning, Psycho II<\/em> asks provocative questions about why we come to see movies like this in the first place. What are we really rooting for here, and why is it so satisfying when a well-timed shovel to someone\u2019s head brings Norman right back to where he was when we first met the character in 1960? I mean, look at the poor guy. He wouldn\u2019t hurt a fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Psycho II” is streaming on Netflix<\/a> — as is the original<\/a>, if you’d like to make a night of it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/psychoII-2-1024x576.png\")
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