Psycho II (film)

Psycho II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Richard Franklin
Written by	Tom Holland
Produced by	Executive producer: Bernard Schwartz Producer: Hilton A. Green
Starring	Anthony Perkins Vera Miles Robert Loggia Meg Tilly
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Edited by	Andrew London
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	June 3, 1983
Running time	113 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$5,000,000 (est.)
Box office	$32,000,000 (USA)

Psycho II is the 1983 sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic Psycho. It stars Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Robert Loggia and Meg Tilly. The film was directed by Richard Franklin and written by Tom Holland. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

It is unrelated to the 1982 novel Psycho II by Robert Bloch, which he wrote as a sequel to his original novel Psycho.

The film did well financially (leading to two further sequels) and moderately well critically. Several critics noted that the film worked hard to sustain the suspenseful atmosphere of the original. Inevitably, it was seen lacking the unique Hitchcock touch, with the plot weakened by the contrivance of setting up further sequels.

• Tagline: It's 22 Years Later and Norman Bates is Coming Home.

Plot summary

Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is released from the mental institution after being judged restored to sanity. Lila Loomis (Vera Miles) protests with a petition that she has been circulating with signatures of people who do not want to see Norman released. She is the sister of Marion Crane (whom Norman killed in the first film), and the widow of Sam Loomis, who was Marion's boyfriend at the time of her death.

Lila vows to see Norman returned to the institution to pay for his crimes. Norman is taken to his old home, the Bates Motel and the mansion behind it on the hill, by Dr. Bill Raymond (Robert Loggia). The doctor assures Norman everything will be fine. He is introduced to the motel's new manager, Warren Toomey, a shady individual played by Dennis Franz.

The following day, Norman reports to a prearranged job as the cook's assistant and dishwasher at a diner not far from the motel. His coworkers include a grouchy waitress named Myrna, Mrs. Emma Spool, a kindly old woman, and Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), a young waitress who is less than stellar at her job. Mary claims she has been thrown out of her boyfriend's place and needs a place to stay. Norman offers to let her stay at the motel, but extends his offer to his home when he discovers that Mr. Toomey has turned his beloved motel into an adult motel.

Norman's life appears to be going along well until "Mother" begins to make her presence known. Norman gets mysterious notes from "Mother" both at the house and the diner. Phone calls come to the house from someone claiming to be Norman's mother. Toomey picks a fight with Norman at the diner after Norman fires him. Later, a figure in a black dress murders Toomey as he packs to leave the motel.

Norman starts to doubt his sanity when he begins to hear voices in the house. He enters his mother's bedroom to find it looks exactly as it did 22 years ago. A sound lures him into the attic, where he is locked in. While locked in the attic, another murder occurs in the basement of the house. Two teenagers sneak into the basement to smoke pot and make out when suddenly the figure in the black dress appears and stabs the boy to death. The girl escapes and later returns with the sheriff. In the meantime, Mary finds Norman sleeping in the attic. The door was unlocked.

The sheriff rings the doorbell and questions Norman and Mary about the alleged murder. The sheriff investigates the fruit cellar and finds it suspiciously neat and orderly. Norman is confused and wants to admit that something suspicious is going on, but Mary interjects and claims that she has cleaned up the basement herself. After the sheriff leaves, Norman is aghast. "Why did you do a thing like that? Lie to the sheriff?" he asks. Mary says, "I had to say something, they were going to arrest you!". Norman collapses into chair with his head in his hands and cries out, "It's starting again!"

All the evidence suggests that Norman is back to his old ways, but Mary is insistent. "It couldn't have been you. You're not like that anymore." Later, Mary is startled when she discovers someone looking at her through a peephole in the bathroom wall. She calls out to Norman. Norman is downstairs and out of reach. Mary draws a gun and starts checking the house. The presence of the gun both surprises and saddens Norman. "That's because of me, isn't it?" he says. The two are horrified to find a bloody rag that has been stuffed down the toilet. Norman appears confused. He thinks he may have committed the murder himself.

Mary says she's going down to check the motel, and one of the film's plot twists occurs. In the parlor of the motel is Lila Loomis, Mary's mother. She has been calling Norman claiming to be his mother, even going so far as to dress up as her and allowing him to see her in the window. Mary, who has been helping her, was responsible for restoring Mother's room at the house and locking Norman in the attic. Mary's growing feelings for Norman, however, have been causing her to reconsider her actions. It also explains how she knows Norman could not have been responsible for the murder of the young boy in the fruit cellar.

Meanwhile, Norman's doctor discovers Mary's identity and informs Norman exactly who has been living with him. He also orders Norma Bates' body to be exhumed, just to prove to Norman that she can't be the one haunting him. Mary admits to Norman that she has been part of Lila's ruse, but that Lila won't stop. "Why did you stop?" Norman asks. Just then the phone rings, and Norman angrily answers it right away, saying "Hello, Mrs. Loomis. How are you today?" Norman's tone suddenly changes as he says "I'm sorry...Mother." Mary gets angry and picks up an extension to confront Lila, but it appears there is nobody on the line with Norman.

Mary goes to Lila's hotel and they have an argument which is overheard by the hotel bartender. Lila, convinced that she is closer than ever to getting Norman recommitted, hurries over to his house. She sneaks into the cellar and removes her "Mother" costume from under a loose stone in the floor. However, she is confronted by a familiar figure in a black dress and is killed with a butcher knife through the mouth. Meanwhile, Mary discovers that Mr. Toomey's car has been retrieved from the swamp, with Toomey's body in the trunk.

Mary returns to the house and tries to get Norman to escape with her. "They'll lock you up again!" she pleads. Norman tries to get Mary to confess what she has been doing to him. The phone rings at the house and Norman answers and starts to speak to his "mother". Once again, Mary listens in and discovers that nobody is on the line with Norman. Norman begins talking about Mary to the voice on the phone and says "Oh no, Mother. You can't make me...kill her..." Terrified, Mary dresses up as Mother, complete with a large butcher knife, and goes to confront Norman. Things rapidly spiral out of control. Norman refuses to acknowledge Mary standing in front of him in the costume, so Mary instead goes upstairs to the extension and tries to talk Norman into hanging up.

Losing sight of Norman, Mary is startled when someone grabs her from behind, and she plunges the butcher knife into...Dr. Raymond, who has sneaked into the house to expose Norman's tormentors. Raymond's stabbed body falls over the balcony and lands in the foyer. Mary runs downstairs and is confronted by a now deranged Norman, who promises to cover up for "Mother". "How many times have you killed, Mother... and how many times have I covered up for you?" he asks. She frantically tells him, "Norman, I am not your mother. I am Mary!" Totally panicking with guilt, she tries to keep him away with the knife, repeatedly stabbing him in the hands and chest. He even tries to grab the knife blade as she pulls it away in his grip. Agast at the cuts to his hands, he still insists he does not want to hurt her. Norman backs Mary into the fruit cellar to hide her and in losing blood and breath, slips on a pile of coal, knocking it lose and revealing Lila's body. Mary, convinced that it was Norman who had been committing the murders, attacks him and is killed when the police enter and shoot her.

At the police station, the sheriff puts together an inaccurate account of all that has occurred. The bartender at Lila's hotel says he overheard Mary tell Lila to stay away or she would "be sorry". This causes the sheriff to believe Lila Loomis's murder was committed by Mary as well as all prior murders. The sheriff summarizes his conclusion, "If you'd seen Mary Loomis at the end, you'd understand. She'd gone mad, even dressed up like Norman's mother. And right up until the end, she was saying Norman was the one who's crazy!"

The film then moves to its final twist. That evening, a woman walks up the steps to the Bates' mansion. Bandaged from his injuries, Norman has boiled water and set a place for a meal when he hears a knock. He answers the door to find Emma Spool, the kindly woman from the diner. Mrs. Spool sits at the table and Norman gives her a cup of poisoned tea from the old tea caddy. She tells him that she is his real mother and that Norma Bates was her sister and his aunt. "I was too young to have a baby, besides I had problems of my own," she says, alluding to the fact that she too was institutionalized. "You had already been put away by the time I got out. So I decided to wait for you." She reveals that she is in fact the one who committed the killings attributed to Lila and Mary by the sheriff. As she sips the tea, the audience is lead on to believe that it is poisoned but she reacts calmly, and it is revealed that Norman decided not to kill her...with poison.

"Are you sure you don't want a sandwich?" Norman asks her before unexpectantly killing her with a sudden blow to the head with a spade. As she lies dying, Norman begins whistling, closes the kitchen blinds, and picks up her body to carry her upstairs to "Mother's" room. The audience hears the familiar voice of Mother, warning Norman not to go messing with "filthy girls" again. The film ends with Norman reopening the Bates Motel and standing in front of the house, waiting as "Mother" watches from the upstairs window.

Cast

Actor	Role
Anthony Perkins	Norman Bates
Vera Miles	Lila Loomis
Meg Tilly	Mary Loomis
Robert Loggia	Dr. Bill Raymond
Dennis Franz	Warren Toomey
Hugh Gillin	Sheriff John Hunt
Claudia Bryar	Mrs. Emma Spool
Robert Alan Browne	Ralph Statler
Lee Garlington	Myrna
Janet Leigh	Marion Crane (flashback)

Trivia

• Anthony Perkins originally turned down the offer to reprise the role of Norman Bates, but when the studio began tossing out other names, such as Christopher Walken, Perkins quickly accepted.
• The film was shot at Universal Studios in Universal City, California.
• The film begins with the original shower sequence from the original film.
• The town of Fairvale when Lila Loomis is tailed by Dr. Raymond is actually Courthouse Square, which is located on the Universal Studios backlot in California.
• The pseudonym that Meg Tilly uses in the film (Mary Samuels) is based on the pseudonym that Janet Leigh signs in with at the Bates Motel on her fateful night in the original film, Marie Samuels.
• The reflection of young Norman Bates in the doorknob when he flashes back to his mother's poisoning is Oz Perkins, Anthony Perkins' son.
• Alfred Hitchcock makes a cameo appearance in the first shot of the unused room. Just before the lights come on, the famous Hitchcock silhouette appears as a shadow on the armoire.
• Jamie Lee Curtis (daughter of the original film's star Janet Leigh) was originally considered for the role of Mary Loomis.
• Two of the actresses who starred in the movie, Vera Miles and on-screen daughter Meg Tilly, both retired permanently from acting in 1995.
• There was reportedly tension on set between co-stars Meg Tilly and Anthony Perkins after Perkins allegedly overheard Tilly questioning why Perkins was getting so much press attention for the film. This suggests that Tilly was oblivious to the global success of the original film.

External links

• Psycho II at IMDb
• Psycho II at AllMovie
• Paycho II at Rotten Tomatoes
• See a complete set of 8 American Lobby Cards from Psycho II