Many times when a movie is successful, the decision is made to make a sequel. Some sequels have been really good and just as entertaining as the original movies. Others have been horrible and shouldn't have been made to begin with. Psycho 2 turned out to be a surprisingly good sequel to Psycho. Unfortunately Psycho 3 rapidly went downhill.
I will be mentioning things connected to Psycho 3 that will be spoilers for people who haven’t seen the first two movies yet.
A young nun, Maureen Coyle, was going to kill herself by jumping from a bell tower. She ended up accidentally causing the nun who came to help her to fall instead. Maureen was then forced to leave the convent and she wound up staying at the Bates Motel. Norman Bates was still running the motel even though he had fallen back into his murderous ways. Norman did have Duane Duke working as some kind of assistant. Norman was drawn to Maureen because of her resemblance to Marion Crane. They actually ended up starting a romance after Norman saved Maureen when she tried to kill herself. Things were complicated more by the fact that Tracy Venerable, a reporter, was in the area doing a story on serial killers. She was trying to prove that Norman was killing again.
Psycho 3 picked up almost immediately after the end of Psycho 2 and was very connected to both of the earlier movies. Because of that, people who haven’t seen the first two movies probably won’t know what is going on. Certain things just won’t make that much sense if this movie is watched before the first two. I did really like the first two movies. I was actually surprised by how well done Psycho 2 was and had hoped that the good quality would carry forward into this movie. Unfortunately it didn’t and this movie ended up being pretty bad. Even with how bad this movie was, yet another sequel was made in 1990. Despite having a few interesting parts that showed mother, Psycho 4: The Beginning really wasn’t any better. I found it slightly more entertaining because of the parts that showed mother and a younger Norman.
I didn’t think that the plot to Psycho 3 was complicated or even that interesting. Of course there would be connections to the first movie since the movie was about Norman again, but there really wasn’t anything new added for his character. Most of it was just a rehash, sometimes including even reusing exact lines from the original. I just didn’t think that worked very well and it would have been much better if something new was introduced. At least in Psycho 2, the fact that Norman had just been released from a mental hospital and seemed to be normal added a new element. With this movie, it was simply that Norman had flipped out and returned to killing. Even the woman that Norman developed an interest in looked very much like Marion. Too much hinged on Norman being fixated on Maureen because of that resemblance. There needed to be something more original going on to make the movie worthwhile. There was a meaningless subplot connected to Duane that was just a huge waste of time, much like the character himself. Duane didn’t add anything to the movie.
I didn’t feel like there was any mystery in Psycho 3. It was made very clear from the beginning what Norman was doing. Really all I wondered about was why Duane was added. There were things added that were supposed to be adding some mystery, like the subplot with the reporter, that I didn’t think worked that well. It wasn’t interesting to me and was very predictable. There was only a very tiny amount of suspense in one or two scenes that didn’t make anything more interesting or less predictable. Instead of building the suspense and not showing a lot of graphic violence like was done in the original, violence turned up fairly often. There was also nudity that seemed to be added in just to have a topless woman standing around before she was murdered. It wasn’t done well at all and felt like a cheap attempt to appeal to a certain type of viewer.
The attempt to add a romance element to the movie through the relationship between Norman and Maureen didn’t work for me either. It seemed weak and wasn’t believable. They weren’t even affectionate with each other. Norman was only interested in her because she looked like Marion. She had her own issues and was just out of the convent, so it really wasn’t believable that she would be interested in any man. The attempted romance did show a glimpse of a more caring Norman every so often, but that wasn’t enough to make it interesting. There was one or two sexual situations connected to Duane and a woman he picked up. That was just weird and culminated with him sitting in a chair moving lamps around while she danced before he kicked her out of the room.
Once again Norman was the main character. He was a complicated character whom I found interesting - though not likable - in the previous movies. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything interesting about him in this movie since he just reverted back to acting like he had in the first movie. Anthony Perkins did better with Norman in the first two movies. Maureen was a young woman with her own mental problems. She wasn’t very stable and ending up around Norman was the worst possible thing for her. There wasn’t anything special about Diana Scarwid in the part.
Duane and Tracy were the only other characters around enough to stand out. Neither of them were interesting or anything other than flat characters who just seemed to be there to add something else to the movie. Tracy believed that Norman was killing again and trying to prove it, so her inclusion tried to add some mystery to if she could prove it. I didn’t care one way or the other. She was a forgettable character. Duane just seemed like a weird guy that Norman decided to hire for some strange reason. None of the other characters stood out to me in any way and I really can’t remember much of anything about them either.
Main Cast
Jeff Fahey - Duane Duke Roberta Maxwell - Tracy Venable Anthony Perkins - Norman Bates Diana Scarwid - Maureen Coyle
Anthony Perkins - Director
I have only seen Psycho 3 on television. I have no idea if there is a DVD version available or not. I am definitely not interested in trying to track it down for any potential extras.
Psycho 3 was not a good continuation of Norman’s story. It wasn’t handled well at all and the plot wasn’t even interesting. If there had been a different plot, the movie could have been better since Norman is such an interesting character. This franchise should have stopped after the second movie.
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