( Psycho 2 / Richard Franklin / 1983 )
Twenty-two years after the events of the first film Norman Bates is judged sane and set free to run the Bates Motel once more. Unfortunately where Norman goes his mother cannot be far behind, but is Norman really going crazy or is there a more sinister conspiracy afoot? While this could be considered cinematic blasphemy before the credits even begin (and the film doesn't help itself by opening with a replay of the original shower scene), PSYCHO - although Hitch's finest hour - was always pulp horror at its core and this is what the sequel embraces, both in conception and execution. Franklin healthily disregards a Hitchcockian approach and as a result, although the film is clearly in debt to its predecessor (a lot of mileage - mostly comic - comes simply from the fore-knowledge that behind Bates' nervous exterior lies a killer), it is far from just being a pale imitation.
Halfway through the film the local sheriff declares that "If Norman Bates is crazy there are a whole lot of people round here running him a close second" and in doing so sums up the entire movie. Whilst there are a lot of horror films that exist within the thin line between sanity and insanity, submerging themselves in a subjective viewpoint so the audience too struggle to distinguish between reality and fantasy, few films go as all-out as PSYCHO II does. In PSYCHO II everybody is crazy and even if they're telling the truth, they're still crazy. Although Franklin and screenwriter Tom Holland (also of CHILD'S PLAY and FRIGHT NIGHT) are no Hitchcock and original author Robert Bloch, PSYCHO II's manic energy and unsettling subjectivity make it a fine sequel and a fine film in its own right.
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