One of my first memories of ever being scared in a movie came during this when my mom took me to see this in the theater (she loves scary movies). If you haven’t seen this there’s a part where Meg Tilly is looking through a peephole and there’s a big jump scare that got me for years. I know a lot of folks love horror but does it really scare you? I think the only movies that have ever scared me where this, The Descent (you probably know the part) and Event Horizon when they watch that video from the other ship. There have been movies that repulse like Martyrs and movies I hate like Funny Games and The Snowtown Murders and then things that I dislike and would never watch like probably anything by Noah Baumbach, Gus van Sant, Terrance Malick and anymore Wes Anderson (Jesus guy Bottle Rocket was one of my favorite movies). I also don’t particularly care for Paul Thomas Anderson, mob movies, rom coms or anything with Jake Gyllenhaal or Jared Leto or whatsherface Diane Keaton and we can’t forget Darren Aronofsky. I also don’t remember where I was going with all of that but probably that I really only enjoy horror movies but I’ve never really been scared in one except for a few and this is one. I also give any movie that kills the dog or cat less and less cred as the minutes tick by. So let’s take a look at Psycho 2!

Since we saw this in the theater and that was 1983 that means I was older than ten. I honestly didn’t see the full (first) Psycho movie until much much later aside from endless mentions / clips / homages to the big shower scene so I figured what was the point we all knew what was going on (I’ve also only seen a few Hitchcock movies and that’s not because I do or don’t like them I’ve just never been around them too much I guess). So I watched Psycho 2 first and it scared the beejeezus out of me and it was right around puberty time so I had the hots for Meg Tilly and this was stabby and scary and all of that good stuff and Amazon thinks I need to watch them all so here we go. I have a feeling I’ll probably spoil this if you haven’t seen this 43 year old movie.

This starts off with Norman Bates getting set free and an attractive older woman I now know is from the original is protesting his release but the judge will have none of it because his doctor says he’s cured goddammit so he goes free and heads to his giant old wooden house on the hill we all know and the little strip motel and he has to get ready for his new job at a diner in the middle of nowhere that’s within walking distance so he can rehab and get back into society and not murder anyone else. There he meets Meg Tilly’s waitress and goes subdued gaga over her and maybe has some growing pains in his trousers and he walks her back to his motel in a rainstorm because her jerkoff boyfriend is a jerkoff and now she doesn’t have a place to stay the night. Naturally, like any of us would do, she goes to stay the night with the guy who used to dress up like his dead mom and kill people. Spoiler note: there’s a reason for this aside from ‘hey man it was the early 80s”. At the motel, Bates finds it being run by Dennis Franz of all people who’s you guessed it a sleezebag and Norman finds some dope in one of the rooms and fires him so he and Tilly go to the creepy old murder house up on the hill because nothing says safe and secure like that decrepit place where everyone got murdered.

But I guess any writer could and probably has go into everything else that happens after that. There’s double crossing and double role play and murder and some surprising bloody special effecty-ness that I wasn’t expecting like a knife through a head and a bunch of stabbiness. There’s also Robert Loggia if you like him. And if you’re a twelve year old kid hitting puberty there’s Meg Tilly’s showery buttocks.

I think they did a really good job with angles and rotating the camera around this way and that and I don’t know if they were all “let’s try and be real Hitchcock-y here people” but they’re there and you can see them. There’s this one cool scene where Norman gets home for the first time and goes upstairs and sees his moms bedroom door and the door changes focus – I don’t know if they just colorized the door from the first movie but it’s a cool perspective swap – the colors look more vibrant and robust instead of run down like the rest of the house – I’m probably not explaining that well. I also liked it when these two people are talking about something crucial to the plot snd a maid comes through vacuuming so we snd the guy trying to eavesdrop can’t hear what they’re saying. I also really liked Meg Tilly again and Anthony Perkins for that matter. Hmph I think I just liked this movie all around. I think there was one last twist that happened at the end that I probably could have lived without but it wasn’t a show stopper.

FILED UNDER: MEG TILLY’S BUTTOCKS AND SMOKING WEED IN THE BASEMENT AND YES MOTHER I UNDERSTAND MOTHER YES MOTHER OK MOTHER YES MOTHER.