Here’s how I know I’m old. I was once having a conversation with one of my younger colleagues about movie franchises, and I commented how weird I thought it was that they actually tried to turn Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho into a movie franchise. This colleague said it didn’t really count as a franchise since it was just a movie and a remake. He didn’t even know that there were three sequels to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho starring Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. Now Scream Factory has put out two of them on Blu-ray.
Lila Loomis (Vera Miles) returns to seek revenge on Norman for killing her sister Marion Crane. Lila’s daughter Mary (Meg Tilly) gets close to Norman as the two seek to drive him crazy themselves. Psycho II is a legitimate drama and builds the tension over Norman’s self-doubts and crafting a mystery.
Equally fun, Psycho III just goes nuts with the legend of Norman Bates.
Perkins directed Psycho III and he has great fun with all the Psycho iconography, framing shots with birds and using the classic Hitchcock shots in different contexts. It’s exploitation at this point, but it’s good exploitation. It’s also much more ‘80s, with much bloodier kills, and lots of gratuitous nudity. I mean really gratuitous.
The Blu-rays look solid. Psycho II looks a little more digital, as in you can see the digital retouching at work, but it’s a good digital remaster. It’s clear and you see the detail in the motel, the basement, the kill shots. Psycho III looks much more like old school 35mm film, mainly because of the little up and down motion of the frame. There are occasional grainy shots, particularly during the titles when we’re looking at a second generation composite.
Screenwriter Tom Holland gives a very informative commentary on Psycho II. Charles Edward Pogue is less informative on Psycho III but does still share a few stories about Perkins directing. The interviews on Psycho II are literally a VHS dub of the film’s electronic press kit from 1983. I kind of love that that’s what it is. III has new interviews with Jeff Fahey, makeup artist Michael Westmore, body double and Scream Queen legend in her own right Brinke Stevens, and victim-turned-director Katt Shea.
I recommend both Psycho sequels independently and for different reasons, and both have really nice Blu-ray packages. When it comes to Franchise Fred, this is what it’s all about. How do you continue a series after a much-lauded classic? There are different approaches, and Psycho II gives us the straight one, while III gives us the giddy fun one. Not to mention the sheer balls of making a sequel to effing Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Leave Psycho IV: The Beginning alone though. That one sucks.
Psycho II:
Psycho III:
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
