Norman Bates is back! As a woman is hosting a radio show with the subject of boys murdering their mothers, a man calling himself Ed calls in and begin telling his story. But a doctor who examined Bates after the first murders recognise him and it turns out it's the old, psychotic killer who used to dress up as his mother and kill young, innocent women - and he's planning to do it again.
Not really much of a sequel, but a flashback drama, where we get to see Norman Bates as child and we finally get to meet the mother and see what all the fuss about, I mean this is the woman who drove Norman into becoming the murderous psycho-pathic cross-dresser so it's only fair that we finally get to meet her and I'm glad to say I was please. It's mostly about his obnoxious mother harassing him, and turning his life into a living hell. The modern Norman calls her both good and bad, but we're almost only allowed to see her bad sides. She's not some evil psycho, like we've thought before, but just an annoying bitch.We get to see some of Norman's murders before the whole mom-plot kicks in, and that goes on until the climax. People expecting some paranoia horror or gory murders will be hugely disappointed - this film is made only to explain the previous movies, not following them. And it's interesting, for a while, but as soon as we've learned that Norman's dis-likable mom was the sole reason the film gets stuck and never gets anywhere. We know he's about to poison the mother and her slimy lover, but it takes extremely long before we get there and that particular scene was extremely unsatisfying and the final scenes of this movie was absolutely pure and utter crap and pointless
Okay this movie isn't all bad, it's not a total disaster it could have easily become but it's also not the clever follow-up it should have been. It has great intentions and holds a good plot but the feeling of it is just tired and bitter, as the director (Mick Garris, who later made the dreadful The Shining mini-series remake) didn't get a grip of the film and just gave up. This could have worked with a better script and more intense direction, but the result is ultimately forgettable.
Again Anthony Perkins is the best actor in this movie despite not having much to do. Henry Thomas who plays the young Norman Bates does try his best with the uneven script and even resembles a young Perkins, successfully imitates Norman's behaviour but it's never given any transformation into the psycho he abruptly becomes. Olivia Hussey (the heroine of the far Superior Black Christmas) does what she can at playing Norman's mother, she does create a very nasty character , but it's not the woman we expected after seeing the original film and finally CCH Pounder did an okay job at playing the radio DJ, she and Norman did manage to create some chemistry together.
All in all, an interesting idea at creating a background story to Norman Bates's past but sadly disappointing and could have been so much better. I'm actually glad they didn't continue the franchise after this movie, this is actually the last sequel up until the remake which isn't really a sequel And i'm sad to they that this franchise ended on a whimper and is well and truly dead.
Not really much of a sequel, but a flashback drama, where we get to see Norman Bates as child and we finally get to meet the mother and see what all the fuss about, I mean this is the woman who drove Norman into becoming the murderous psycho-pathic cross-dresser so it's only fair that we finally get to meet her and I'm glad to say I was please. It's mostly about his obnoxious mother harassing him, and turning his life into a living hell. The modern Norman calls her both good and bad, but we're almost only allowed to see her bad sides. She's not some evil psycho, like we've thought before, but just an annoying bitch.We get to see some of Norman's murders before the whole mom-plot kicks in, and that goes on until the climax. People expecting some paranoia horror or gory murders will be hugely disappointed - this film is made only to explain the previous movies, not following them. And it's interesting, for a while, but as soon as we've learned that Norman's dis-likable mom was the sole reason the film gets stuck and never gets anywhere. We know he's about to poison the mother and her slimy lover, but it takes extremely long before we get there and that particular scene was extremely unsatisfying and the final scenes of this movie was absolutely pure and utter crap and pointless
Okay this movie isn't all bad, it's not a total disaster it could have easily become but it's also not the clever follow-up it should have been. It has great intentions and holds a good plot but the feeling of it is just tired and bitter, as the director (Mick Garris, who later made the dreadful The Shining mini-series remake) didn't get a grip of the film and just gave up. This could have worked with a better script and more intense direction, but the result is ultimately forgettable.
Again Anthony Perkins is the best actor in this movie despite not having much to do. Henry Thomas who plays the young Norman Bates does try his best with the uneven script and even resembles a young Perkins, successfully imitates Norman's behaviour but it's never given any transformation into the psycho he abruptly becomes. Olivia Hussey (the heroine of the far Superior Black Christmas) does what she can at playing Norman's mother, she does create a very nasty character , but it's not the woman we expected after seeing the original film and finally CCH Pounder did an okay job at playing the radio DJ, she and Norman did manage to create some chemistry together.
All in all, an interesting idea at creating a background story to Norman Bates's past but sadly disappointing and could have been so much better. I'm actually glad they didn't continue the franchise after this movie, this is actually the last sequel up until the remake which isn't really a sequel And i'm sad to they that this franchise ended on a whimper and is well and truly dead.