31 Days of Horror Movies: Psycho II

With today's film, we've got two days in a row of childhood favorites. Yesterday was Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, and today we have....

Psycho II

Filmed in 1982, and released in 1983, some 23 years after the Hitchcock original, Psycho II sees the release of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) from the mental hospital he has resided in, receiving treatment for the murders he committed while dressed as his dead mother. Hot on his trail is Lila Loomis (Vera Miles), the sister of Marion Crane, one of the women slain by Bates during the original movie. Helping Norman adjust to life on the outside is Dr. Raymond (Robert Loggia).

Norman gets a job at a diner, and decides that it would be a good idea to live back at his old stomping grounds -- the Bates Motel, and house up on the hill. The ineffectual Dr. Raymond doesn't put up too great of a fuss about this questionable move. Soon, Norman begins receiving threatening letters and phone calls from someone claiming to be his dead mother. It's around this juncture that he thinks it a good idea to let a co-worker from the diner, Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly) stay a few nights at his house.

The plot of Psycho II is (if you couldn't already tell) rather preposterous. But I love every minute of it. Richard Franklin's direction is great, and the haunting score by Jerry Goldsmith works in wonderful in unison with it. The acting is pretty good, for a slasher flick. There is, of course, more blood and gore than in the original Psycho film, but that is to be expected. I watched it dozens of times as a kid, and can recite scenes line-by-line. One of the best!

Comments

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing). It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....

To the beat of his own Drum

Tonight I learned that Kevin Drum has died. He passed away on Friday, March 7th, from Multiple Myeloma (the same illness that took my uncle Paul several years ago). Drum's diagnosis came in 2014, and he talked about it openly on his blog , up to and including just a few days before his death. I knew of Kevin Drum through his blogging. During the early aughts, when I started to become more politically aware and involved, I began reading certain online musings by folks -- Andrew Sullivan and, on a local level, IlliniPundit, to name a couple. Drum's blog at that time was Calpundit . Eventually, he began blogging at Mother Jones . When they parted ways, he started what would be his final online venture. So, yeah, I've been reading Kevin's musings for over twenty years.

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.

Left to my own devices

Search This Blog