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Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz ... see more see more... , Hugh Gillin , Claudia Bryar , Robert Alan Browne , Ben Hartigan , Lee Garlington , Tim Maier , Jill Carroll , Chris Hendrie , Tom Holland , George Dickerson , Ben Frommer , Bruce Greenwood , Gene Whittington , Robert Traynor , Jackie McNamara , Thaddeus Smith , Oz Perkins , Michael Lomazow

A sequel to one of the most popular horror films of all time, this psychological thriller received a pleasantly surprised, positive critical reception. Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates, who has... read more read more... just been released from an insane asylum after 22 years, having been judged clinically sane by the State of California over the objections of Lila Crane Loomis (Vera Miles), sister to one of Norman's murder victims. Norman returns home to the hotel and hilltop mansion he once inhabited with his mother. As a parole condition, Norman is hired at a local diner, where he struggles to join mainstream society, despite the stares of patrons aware of his past. At the diner, Norman befriends Mary (Meg Tilly), a waitress, and it seems that he may be putting some semblance of a life back together. But then Norman begins to experience hallucinatory encounters with his long-dead mother, including a handwritten note, a phone call, and a sighting of her standing at her favorite window. Is Norman's psychosis manifesting itself again, or are old enemies attempting to drive him back into an institution? As the pressure mounts, bodies pile up, and Norman's fragile hold on normality becomes more and more tenuous. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

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47% liked it

19,002 ratings

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55% liked it

29 critics

R, 1 hr. 53 min.

Directed by: Richard Franklin

Release Date: January 1, 1983

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DVD Release Date: January 15, 1999

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Stats: 678 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (678)

  • spielberg00
    December 10, 2011
    spielberg00
    It's been 22 years (23 between the films' release) since Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) was sent to a mental asylum for his murder of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh, first film only). Now, he has been released from the institution, initially a changed man, but it's obvious he has a f... read moreew murders in mind when he has three things to juggle: a drug addict who managed his motel while he was in an institution; a woman visiting his motel; and the inevitable return of "Mother", the crux of his psychotic image.

    For me, the original PSYCHO was centered primarily on character Marion Crane and her somewhat-mysterious murder. The first film did not strike me as focusing on Norman Bates until the last five minutes or so. I personally find this second entry much, much more terrifying than Alfred Hitchcock's preceding 1960 thriller classic, as this seems to be more of a study on Norman Bates as a fictional serial killer. PSYCHO II truly delves into Norman Bates's psyche in a much more horrific way than its predecessor.

    Full Review: http://wp.me/p1Urcx-x7
  • kenstachnik
    January 21, 2011
    kenstachnik
    Of course Psycho 2 can't live up to the original, but if you divorce it of it's shadow it's got some nice twists and turns of it's own. Directed by Richard "Road Games" Franklin Psycho 2 is worth watching on a lazy weekend.
  • ajv2688
    January 14, 2011
    ajv2688
    A pretty good sequel to a classic horror movie, it's hard to make sequels really, and they did their best. I just thank God that Perkins could be in these sequels, without him they'd be horrible. The story is good, as it continues the life of Norman Bates, and Perkins does a go... read moreod job as usual. Overall, pretty good.
  • creepfreak
    August 14, 2010
    creepfreak
    This sequel is better than the original, for real. And that's extremely rare. It's a spooky film that plays more like a haunted house story than a slasher film. Tom Holland (director of "Child's Play" (the original) and "Fright Night") wrote the script. Norman Bates returns and s... read morelowly begins to relose his sanity. Great performance by him once again. Great performances from everybody. Well directed and creepy as hell. Great film!

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  • FilmFanatik
    March 1, 2010
    FilmFanatik
    Brilliant sequel to the original classic. In the same vein as 2010: The Year We Make Contact, somebody decided to make a sequel to a masterpiece a couple of decades later - and I think they did a terrific job.
  • matertenebraum
    January 18, 2010
    matertenebraum
    After twenty-two years, Norman Bates is deemed sane and released from the asylum. He returns to live at the motel, while taking up a job at a local diner. He befriends Mary Samuels, a young waitress also working at the diner, and lets her move into the house with him when she and... read more her boyfriend split up. But suddenly Norman starts receiving phone calls and notes from his mother. These are followed by a series of murders. Norman is unable to tell whether he is going crazy or there is somebody else behind this.

    Alfred Hitchcock?s Psycho (1960) is one of the most influential films ever made. Purportedly more term papers are written about Psycho in film school than any other film. Psycho not only influenced numerous copies, but it brought the modern horror out of the Gothic darkness of the 1930s and 40s and into a world of twisted Freudian psychology and screwed-up Puritanical sexuality that has remained a fundamental undertow of the psycho-thriller ever since.

    Alfred Hitchcock passed away in 1980 and that seemed to act as signal that it was okay to approach the sacrosanct territory of sequelizing Psycho, probably something Hitchcock would never have okayed in his lifetime. Two Psycho sequels were first announced within less than a year of Hitchcock?s death and both emerged in 1983 ? this film sequel, as well as Psycho II (1983), an unrelated novel by Robert Bloch, author of the original book that Psycho was based on. This film would then be followed by a whole host of other Psycho sequels, including Psycho III (1986), the cable-movie Psycho IV: The Beginning (1991), both with Anthony Perkins, a loosely related tv pilot Bates Motel (1987) that never sold, and then Gus Van Sant?s bizarre shot-for-shot remake of the original Psycho (1998).

    Psycho II makes an impressively scrupulous attempt to sequelize such a legendary work. It brings back both Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles from the original. Oscar-winner Jerry Goldsmith replaces the late Bernard Herrmann on score. And the director was the Australian Richard Franklin. While a student at the University of Southern California film school in the late 1960s, Franklin had invite Alfred Hitchcock in for a Q&A session. The two struck up a friendship and Hitchcock invited Franklin to come and visit him on the set of his last movies and became a mentor of sorts to him. In a nice touch the Meg Tilly part here was originally offered to Jamie Lee Curtis, who?d just had some success as the heroine in Halloween (1978). Jamie Lee was of course the daughter of Psycho?s original shower victim Janet Leigh. Alas this never came to pass as Jamie Lee announced she was sick of slasher movie typecasting and refused any more genre roles, and the part was recast with Meg Tilly, who does a fine job.

    Psycho II is a sublimely clever effort, sometimes a little too much for its own good. But Tom Holland?s script is full of sly subtleties and often haunting dialogue. It?s a script that gives the audience a real workout in the sharp twists and turns it convolutes through. And the ending holds a last neatly black surprise just when one thought the film had finished. Anthony Perkins soups up his range of expressions ? the film certainly casts him a more heroic role this time around. He?s quite creepy in his twitchiness and yet at the same time the two decades has allowed his boyishness to mellow into something inordinately likeable.

    Director Richard Franklin has learnt well from the master. Franklin exactingly restages and quotes scenes from the original ? the shower murder, Arbogast?s murder on the stairs and the venture down into the cellar ? but at the same time wittily subverts their familiarity. The new shocks he delivers have a classical orchestration that move with everything the contemporary slasher cycle didn?t. Certainly the violence is a lot more explicit and bloody than Hitchcock would have ever allowed in one of his films. The design team do a superb job of recreating the house in a perfect facsimile detail for detail to the original. Even the camerawork is determined to show off its cleverness with the use of massive wide-angle aerial shots and reflections off door handles.

    Richard Franklin made a number of other films of genre interest are:? Patrick (1979) about a psychic comatose patient, the excellent Hitchcock-influenced psycho-thriller Roadgames (1981), the children?s film Cloak and Dagger (1984), the killer chimpanzee film Link (1986) and the subtly effective ghost story Visitors (2003). Franklin has also directed a reasonable amount of tv, including the pilots for genre series such as Beauty and the Beast (1987-90) and The Lost World (1999-2000).

    Screenwriter Tom Holland delivered a number of other genre scripts including The Initiation of Sarah (1978), the revenge drama Class of 1984 (1982), the transformation film The Beast Within (1982), the slasher film Scream for Help (1984) and Cloak and Dagger. Holland subsequently went onto direct the vampire film Fright Night (1985); Child?s Play (1988), which started off the whole Chucky franchise; the psycho secretary tale The Temp (1993); and the Stephen King adaptations The Langoliers (tv mini-series, 1995) and Thinner (1996).
  • cancercapricorn2002
    July 10, 2009
    cancercapricorn2002
    Norman Bates is back after 22 years locked in a mental hospital for murdering people. He comes home apparently cured and gets a job in a Diner in a attempt to build a normal life, but he starts hearing voices again, his mother's voice and people start getting killed. Has Norman l... read moreost his mind again or is it someone else trying to make Norman go mad again.

    22 years is a long wait for a sequel, a very long wait, after the masterpiece that was Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", comes "Psycho 2" despite not having Hitchcock in the Director's chair, this sequel still manages to be a worthy follow up. Richard Franklin does a good job with maintaining the suspense and the atmosphere displaying a truly Gothic scenery which I loved, I'm glad that they focused more on the characters and setting the mood rather than just going all out with the splatter like they did with other slasher movies at the time, don't get me wrong this sequel does have it bloody moments, the body count is bigger this time, I also liked that this movie has a twist at the end like the first one, although not as good, but again I didn't see that coming.

    Anthony Perkins again does a brilliant job as Norman Bates, bringing more sympathy to the role and giving him a lot more to do this time round adding more layers and depth to his character. Meg Tilly (Mary) truly shines as Norman's co-worker and friend, the chemistry really worked between her and Norman, another cast member of Psycho 1 is back and that is Lila Loomis played brilliantly by Vera Miles, she's gone all manic this time round hell bent on putting Norman back in the looney bin at any cost, she wasn't very sympathectic this time round and Robert Loggia (Dr Raymond) brings greatness to his character as Norman's doctor, I liked the fact that he was understanding and helping Norman rebuild his life, showing that he's not just a doctor but a friend, I really liked that element in the movie.

    All in all, although it's not quite the masterpiece the first one was, but a well and truly worthy follow up
  • Deano78
    September 6, 2008
    Deano78
    A good horror when some eerie, scary moments!
  • TheGame90
    March 25, 2008
    TheGame90
    Much better than expected
  • sononothing
    March 18, 2008
    sononothing
    I'm sure in 1983 people were screaming about what kind of asshole would make a sequel to Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's shower scaring, sexual orientation bending masterpiece. Well, they did it and they actually pulled it off. The movie isn't simple '80's slash and burn with a retard... read more in a mask. It's plot is simple compared to most Hitchcock flciks, but Richard Benjamin pulls it off. Hey, at least it wasn't the remake.

View All Psycho II Reviews

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
October 20, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

Director Richard Franklin deftly keeps the suspense and tension on high while dolling out dozens of shock-of-recognitions shots drawn from the audience's familiarity with Psycho. Full Review

Dave Kehr
October 20, 2008
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Though far from a worthy successor to the original (but why make impossible demands?) the film clearly could have been much worse. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It is a craftsman-like piece of filmmaking with a suitably flaky performance by Perkins, but it isn't really a sequel to Psycho. It continues the story, but not the spell. Full Review

Vincent Canby
August 30, 2004
Vincent Canby, New York Times

That it's about as chilly a movie as ever delighted the mass market is beside the point, in view of its exuberantly macabre craftsmanship. Full Review

David Nusair
October 10, 2011
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

A surprisingly decent sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's landmark slasher... Full Review

October 20, 2008
TV Guide's Movie Guide

This sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's classic is surprisingly good. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Scary and fun, it's as worthy a sequel as one might reasonably expect. Full Review

Kevin Carr
September 9, 2005
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures

Not a bad sequel at all.

Alex Sandell
May 6, 2005
Alex Sandell, Juicy Cerebellum

The weakest of the series. Still has its fair share of scares.

David Cornelius
December 4, 2004
David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com

[It's] a sequel that supports its predecessor instead of diminishes. Full Review

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Psycho II Trivia

  • Who played the young Norman Bates in flashbacks in "Psycho II"?  Answer »
  • What 70s Show star was in American Psycho II?  Answer »
  • Psycho and its sequels span 30 years: 1960-1990. In how many of the 4 films (Psycho, II, III, and IV: The Beginning) did Anthony Perkins play Norman Bates?  Answer »
  • --Evil Dead II-- Professor Knowby's dead wife is said to be in the "fruit cellar," a reference to Psycho  Answer »
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