Home :: DVD :: Horror :: Slasher Flicks  

Classic Horror & Monsters
Cult Classics
Frighteningly Funny
General
Series & Sequels
Slasher Flicks

Teen Terror
Television
Things That Go Bump
Psycho II

Psycho II

List Price: $9.95
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 8 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not Psycho I or III but enterning and great sequal
Review: ...No one could play the role better in my mind thean The man himself Anthoney Perkins.

Phsycho II picks up 23 years later after Psycho I Norman Bates is being realsed from prisen after serveing 23 years and due to being found not-guily in his trial for admiting insanity. A relative of 1 of the victems strongly protests over this.......... Beofre you know it love comes around agine with Norman but unfornitly it hast to be the womens daughter who he does fall in love with, and you dont know this untill towards the end of the movie but the women who protests over this starts pre-tending to be mother and brings Mother back into full-fleged action and bodys start pilling up, Exsept this time The Bates Motel is some what occupied by pary college student that disturns Norman/Mother.................. IT all leads up to a ending to witch it leads to Psycho III.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ONE THING-IT ROCKS!!...
Review: I saw this movie on encore once back when I was a psycho freak. After I saw it, I found out that it was my favorite psycho movie. I suggest you buy this movie, or DVD. It's one of the best psycho movies. I should know. I've seen all five of them. You won't be disappointed! It's also one of the most suspenseful movies ever. There's one part when he's sitting in a chair, you know, Anthony Perkins, and... Well, I don't wanna ruin it for you. I just suggest you get the DVD soon, like me. You ain't gonna disagree with me. I hope not.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great film in its own right
Review: This is to some extent a 1980s treatment of the ideas of the 1960 film Psycho. It shows the differing production values, the change in audience expectations, and of course the change to colour. Psycho was made on a low budget using a television film crew, chiefly because Hitchcock himself believed in the project but the big studios had reservations. Psycho II was made in the wake of similar horror films like Halloween and Friday 13th and of course The Omen, so these films affect our expectations just as much as the original Psycho. Retaining the best elements of the original film is difficult since the final revelation is known to us and cannot be used twice, and Janet Leigh's character of course is dead. So a new approach was needed and this is very much Norman Bates's film, despite the return of Vera Miles as Lila Crane, and the introduction of a villageful of new characters. The central themes of rehabilitation and the effectiveness of psychotherapy on Norman make an interesting diversion from the action and suspense, as does his partial romance with a colleague. Bates looks at times like a character from the 1950s planted in the bewildering world of 1983, which is of course exactly what he is. The Bates Motel and house look exactly as they did in 1960, and Bernard Hermann's score is re-used cleverly together with new elements by Jerry Goldsmith

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: OK, but Psycho is Still The Best!
Review: Psycho with Anthony Perkins was fantastic and one of my favorite classic movies, Psycho 2 was good but not as good as Psycho, I think Psycho 2 was just too gory compared to Psycho and the scene where Meg Tilly's character finds all that blood in the bathtub and toilet was just too gross and unnecessary! I really Like Anthony Perkins, he is one of my favorite actors and I like Meg Tilly, she is one of my favorite actresses and I think she is so under-rated and I think she is just as good an actress as her sister Jennifer and it's a shame that she hasn't made more movies than this and the few others she was in.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Psycho II
Review: Take a cup of poisoned tea and call me in the morning. After 22 years in a mental institution, Norman Bates is coming home. Lily Loomis (Vera Miles) is outraged at this and is prepared to stop at nothing to send Norman back to his padded cell. Norman returns to that creeky old house on top of the hill. Once there, he starts to recieve notes and phone calls from his "mother."
He starts work at a local diner, where he meets Mary (Meg Tilly). She needs a place to stay, and where else can you get a better night sleep that the Bates Motel. Mary moves in with Norman and that's when even more strange things start to happen. Psycho II is basically a who-done-it - you're constently wondering who is doing these things to Norman.
It's an okay plot, but I wouldn't gamble my money on it...again. Psycho just doesn't hold up in colour as well as black and white, Vera Miles' anger for Norman isn't believable enough, and the ending is improbable. The only highlight was seeing Anthony Perkins reprise the role that made him famous.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: POOR NORMAM
Review: Poor Norman. Norman (Anthony Perkins) tried to get his act together after he was released from the psychiatric institute. But his new friend, Mary (Meg Tilly) and her mother (Vera Miles)suceeded in making him go wacko again. Maybe if they would of left Norman alone, he could of actually been ok.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: As good as sequels get.
Review: The original "Psycho," a classic in the great tradition of Hitckcock's many films, brought so much to the world of movies that it was hard to imagine that any sequel to a movie as stupendous as this would be any good. Sequels, especially those of the horror genre, tend to be very trite and uninvolving, which is why, after watching "Psycho II," I was in a state of shock over how good it actually was. Of course, it's not Hitchcock, and will never live up to the caliber of the first film, but for what it's worth, it gets its formula right and keeps it right.

The movie picks up many years later, after the horrific murders at the Bates Motel, and Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) has just been released back into the world despite harsh protest from Lila Crane (Vera Miles), the sister who stopped at nothing to find her sister, Bates's shower victim. He returns to the motel, a drug-ridden sex house run by a sleazy man, and to his home, the place where his mental problems all began.

And soon they begin resurfacing. He is haunted once again by the voice of his mother, as well as by images of events gone by. At his new job, he is befriended by Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), who, after being kicked out by her boyfriend, moves into Norman's house. From the beginning, she feels very uncomfortable there, even more so when strange, incriminating things occur. Of course, all eyes look to Norman, but we know that he is not responsible. But who is?

It's hard to believe that this movie is as good as it is, though it's not so hard to explain why. The movie gets it right by choosing to place most of the movie in the Bates home, which was rarely seen in the first film. Recalling the way in which that house looked so foreboding from the outside, it's absolutely intriguing to actually see the guts of it, to get to see the inside of the house. Seeing everything inside makes the voices and images that haunt Norman believable and convincing.

Perkins must also be commended for the film's surprising success. He is able to keep the timidity and degree of gentility that his character possessed in the first outing, and that's what makes us able to care more for him in this film.

There's also a very nice suspense and mystery factor to be dealt with, something unusual in horror sequels. The movie wastes no time in setting Norman up for a fall that is not his fault, and up until the point when we know who is actually behind everything that goes on, the movie is very tense and interesting.

And then we have a nicely done climax, in which all is revealed to the viewer, and we realize what has been going on. But just as we can begin to feel some sort of slight sympathy for Norman, the movie goes on, and in the final, anticlimactic sequence involving a woman claiming to be his mother, the movie ends with yet another possibility of a sequel, and things go sour.

But, for what it's worth, "Psycho II" stands on its own as one of the better horror sequels to come along ever. It stays in touch with the nuances of the original, and plays on its old tricks in new ways. The mystery and intrigue can sometimes reach a fever pitch, though the ending is a bit unfitting. All-in-all, a well-crafted thriller.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wonderful Sequel!
Review: Sequels of great movies always are horrible. I thought the sequel to Psycho, Psycho II would be just like that. It wasn't.

Psycho is one of the greatest movies of all time, and one of my personal favorites. I rented this only a few weeks ago and I was shocked. This movie was actually entertaining! It was so good, I bought it on DVD.

The DVD on the other hand is a little iffy, but, what do expect from Goodtimes Home Video? But lets just say the picture was very clear, aside from VHS, and there was chapter selection. (The movie isn't in widescreen, though)

I won't tell you the plot, but if you are a Psycho fan, but this DVD. Don't expect much from it, but you should be satisfied.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dusty, tired sequel
Review: I loved the first Psycho, it is one of the best films of all time, but the sequel didn't do much for me. Anthony Perkins is less convincing than ever and everything is predictable. This movie pretty much gave the core horror audience what they wanted, rather than being innovative and original. There are way too many rehashs of the first and this whole movie Icompletely destroys the ending to the original Psycho, which shouldn't have had 3 sequels and a lackluster remake (Don't even get me started).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not what you would expect from a sequel.
Review: This is a surprisingly good follow up to the Hitchcock classic. Anthony Perkins is back as Norman Bates as he is found sane and released from an asylum. He moves back to the house at the Bates Motel. As part of his parole, he is hired to work at a diner where he meets Mary, a waitress who has fallen out of a relationship. Norman sympathetically takes her to stay at the Bates Motel. Immediately following this, Norman sees and hears his "Mother". As murders take place one by one, Norman finds himself in a psychological battle with himself.

There are some great suspense scenes in this movie, but towards the end it leans more toward graphic, gratuitous violence. Anyway this will pass most expectations and can be recommended for fans or viewers of the original Psycho.

It kind of goes without saying that this is nowhere near as good as its predecessor (very few movies are). Without Hitchcock, it's missing a bit of the favorable filming style of course. Still, worth watching. Beware of the other sequels though.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 8 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates