Sometimes it is near impossible to try and follow up what has been firmly established in the public eye as a genuine cinematic classic – and so it seemed with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 hit PSYCHO.
However, in 1983, writer Tom Holland (CHILD’S PLAY, FRIGHT NIGHT) gave it a go – and came up with one of the most surprisingly good sequels, even more so considering it was over two decades since the original film came out.
Released from the institute where he has been kept on good behaviour, Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) returns to the motel and his house where he carried out his evil acts and takes a job at a local diner which has been recommended to him by his doctor (Robert Loggia). He meets Mary Crane (Meg Tilly, THE BIG CHILL), but the motel has been taken over by Toomey (Denis Franz, DIE HARD 2: DIE HARDER) who has been a bit more liberal with who stays there, compared to when Bates ran it.
However, mysterious phone calls to the house and the diner from somebody allegedly being his mother prompt Bates to question whether he is sane after all. In addition, people are starting to die again.
A darkly fun sequel to a true classic, PSYCHO II is well worth a look.