normanbates | BLOODCRYPT

Psycho IV: The Beginning: C+

So Norman Bates is not crazy again. He’s been released from the slam and he even has a wife who is…a psychiatric nurse. They live together in the Psycho House because of all the great memories. And memories is what we get. This is a prequel/sequel told mostly through flashbacks.

Norman seems to be doing okay until his wife tells him she’s preggers with his child. Then he starts getting all fussy because he’s afraid his child will inherit the mental illness that he inherited from Mother. He calls a radio talk show. The topic is, luckily, matricide. He says he’s thinking about killing his wife and the baby inside her to protect the world from brutal slayings. And they ask Norman to tell his story. So he does. And the flashbacks begin.

So it’s Anthony Perkins (who many might remember from 1964’s Agent 38-24-36) playing Norman Bates and Eliot from E.T. playing young Norman Bates. Playing Mother is Juliet, who we all know has great natural boobs. Even Norman thinks so and he gets punished for having a boner brush her leg while they’re wrestling. Because sex is bad and shameful, says Juliet. So she makes him dress as a girl as punishment for his boners. And Eliot is pretty traumatized to begin with because his dad died when he was 6 and he also lost his friend E.T.

But then Juliet starts banging Sledge Hammer. Then they build a motel and then all hell breaks loose because Norman can’t stop or stand thinking about his hypocritical, slutty mom and her fickle feelings about boners.

So he wastes them both and becomes like he was in Psycho One.

Then in modern day, he decides not to kill his family and puts the down the knife he had for doing that. Then he burns down Psycho House and says he’s okay now, thank you.

Passable. Pretty good acting, weird sexual tension everywhere and Juliet’s feelings about boners add up to put this in the realm of “Not a Waste of Time, at Least”. Especially if you like these characters. And it’s interesting to note that Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Psycho One, is also the writer of this one and most likely had dementia when he wrote it. Because forgot the Juliet nude scene. That’s a senior moment if there ever was one.

Psycho II: B+

This movie was made and is set exactly 22 years after the events depicted in the first movie, which is called Psycho One. Anthony Perkins (who many might remember from The Black Hole) reprises his role as Norman Bates. And he’s pretty damn good.

Also returning from the original is Jamie Lee Curtis’ Aunt, who is again played by Vera Miles, who played the role of the worried sister of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Mom in the first film too.

Apparently, the sister ended up married to that hardware dude who Jamie Lee Curtis’ Mom was banging and stole money for in Psycho One. Right on, hardware dude…both sisters. I was kind of wishing he was in the movie so he could give a monologue about the sister’s different smells.

Anyway, after their harrowing experiences in the first film they fell in love and got married and hella banged without protection, because the Agnes of God is also in it, and she plays Jamie Lee Curtis’ Mom’s Sister’s Daughter.

If you are not an expert in genealogy, which I assume you are not, this means that Agnes of God is Jamie Lee Curtis’ Mom’s Niece, which makes her Jamie Lee Curtis’ cousin and those cousins both have great natural boobs.

Norman, he has just been declared sane and sent home to his motel and Psycho House. But this is no good for the Curtis girls. They want him back in the slam. So they’re trying to drive him crazy by moving shit around the Psycho House and hiding tape recordings of “Mother” trying to make him think he’s losing it again

So Agnes of God pretends to be a runaway, and she cons Norman Bates into giving her a place to stay, which is how they can put stuff in the Psycho House.

So Norman Bates is actually the victim here. Now, he’s not totally done with his old tricks. He still watches Agnes of God through a hole in the wall while she showers (which is how I know about the boobs), but the Oedipal/matricidal/sex-shame/misogynistic rage killings really have abated for now.

Also there’s a subplot about Detective Sipcowicz selling drugs out of the Bates Motel. That was probably a sting or something.

So will Norman win against these vindictive cunts? Watch it yourself, because it is a pretty passable sequel to a perfect movie-especially considering it was made in the early 80’s like Flashdance.

Anthony Perkins is great once again. Norman does pretty good keeping his mind and vanquishing his foes in the end.

Or at least until the end-end.