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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 295774" data-attributes="member: 23">Psycho II (1982) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-cmokgtY0UoA%2FWemUuscVn8I%2FAAAAAAAAISs%2FhU2ZU_YbIuoRELi6TlqSCVPSbTx-PI_kACLcBGAs%2Fs1600%2FPsycho%252BII.png&f=1&nofb=1" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 623px" /> I'm pretty sure I've only seen this once before, and that was many years ago. Blessed with a terrible memory, I couldn't remember a thing about it other than both Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles returned. This meant there were a few little twists that genuinely surprised me. All these years on from the original and it's clear that this is a very different animal. It lacked the divergence of the first film where we were thrown off about who's story we were following. Apart from a couple of short scenes with Lila Loomis (née Crane. She married her sister's lover which is a tad icky), this was entirely Norman's story. Arguably as it should be, since the original was ultimately his film. But the first time round, we saw him through the eyes of others, whereas this time we saw things through his eyes far more. He's played incredibly well by Anthony Perkins and remains fascinating, but ultimately what's known is always going to be that much less frightening and fascinating than what's not known. That said, there was a new variety of unknown with the question of just how sane Norman now is: something that's not fully shared with the audience. Norman was a very likeable, vulnerable and fragile character in the original and I appreciated that this was built on. As things progressed and he inevitably questioned his sanity, I was rooting for him to recover, while at the same time excited to see what would happen when he didn't. I really liked the angle of Norman trying to find his place in the world after being released from psychiatric care. This aspect felt very real and would have made for an interesting film even without the obligatory slasher elements. There were some great character actors involved who brought out really interesting colours in Anthony Perkins. Hugh Gillin as the Sheriff was terrific, as was Robert Loggia as Norman's doctor (kind of analogous with Halloween's Dr Loomis, but this time you really sense that the doctor cares for and connects with his patient). At times I was reminded of the middle act of When A Stranger Calls where it diverged into a story of a frail, vulnerable man finding the world a cruel place, with Psycho II's diner in place of When A Stranger Calls' seedy bar. I'm really not sure about Meg Tilly. She's pretty and sweet and likeable, which all worked in the character's favour. And she cries well. But her delivery seemed to lack punctuation and sometimes felt like she was spitting out all the words before she forgot them and couldn't afford to stop for breath. I wonder if Jamie Lee Curtis was considered for this role. It would have been a nice touch. There were a number of soapy revelations. Some kind of worked. [SPOILER]I gave a little gasp when it was revealed that "Mary Samuels" was Lila and Sam's daughter. Which resolved my irritation that her name was "coincidentally" too similar to the "Marie Samuels" pseudonym Marion used in the original. Though it has to be said that this revelation did nothing for any of the characters. Lila in particular felt too one-dimensional, angry and vengeful this time round. She was positively unlikeable.  [/SPOILER] Some didn't work at all. Did Norman really need [SPOILER]another dead mother? And did we need to find out that his mother from the original wasn't his mother but his aunt? [/SPOILER]It's just too silly. Ultimately, all these revelations gilded the lily. It's also evident that the series is playing catchup with the Eighties slasher franchises. At this point, Halloween, Friday The 13th and The Omen were up to their third instalments. And while this is nowhere near as tacky as the Friday The 13th series, it comes across strongly in moments of violence that this is the crowd they're pitching to. The "creative" kills come across as derivative and a little desperate. And, to Twenty First century eyes, far more dated than Marion's shower scene. The graphic [spoiler]knife-down-the-throat moment of Lila's [/spoiler]death is incredibly undignified for such a character and it amazes me that nobody involved appeared to recognise this. But none of the downsides stopped this from being a watchable and interesting revisit to that character and that motel. Otherwise, we'd always have wondered. [MEDIA=youtube]sceXA26WSnk[/MEDIA] Oh, and Jerry Goldsmith's score - wisely going in a different direction from Bernard Herrmann's strings - is gorgeous. I've been listening to it quite a bit in recent weeks.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?