Not content with being completely redundant (We never really needed to see the story of Norman Bates growing up- it is the kind of thing best left as back-story) this sorry excuse for a sequel does what it does very badly.
The ham-fisted handling of Norman's flashbacks almost spoils the previous movies. Olivia Hussey is woefully miscast as Mrs Bates and the way the character is so overtly sexualized in the movie really comes across as tacky and clumsy. She does not seem like the Mrs Bates we had come to expect from the previous entries (Not to mentioned too young and with an inappropriate accent) in the series and her crazy turns are very unconvincing. Everything about the flashbacks is clumsy and cheesy, right down to the laugh or groan inducing picnic sequence where Norman tells of the happy times with his mother- I almost expect to see them dancing across a flowery meadow or see them feeding some deer. The new boyfriend is a one dimensional jerk, a caricature of the evil step dad. The way he is portrayed you half expect to see him twirling his mustaches or torturing kittens any minute. The pivotal scene of Norman poisoning his mother and her lover is way over the top and extremely cheesy, complete with cheap 'I'm not dead yet' moments and melodramatics. The only effective bit in the sequence is the part when Norman looks unflinchingly at his mothers face as she slips away. The other murder scenes seem completely gratuitous and contrived- Woman throw themselves at Norman (When did he become such a chick-magnet), he kills them, we've seen it all before and these scenes aren't all the necessary to movie and seem like they have been shoehorned in to get some more bloodshed happening. On the positive side Henry Thomas does give a decent performance as the young Norman Bates.
The modern day material is pretty awful too. Norman's recovery and marriage to his Psychiatrist, and in such a short period of time, is utterly unbelievable and it is also very hard to take that he would be telling his story and feelings on a live talk-back radio show given the character. The staff at the radio show are smug and obnoxious, although we are supposed to root for them over the WASPish psychiatrist who of course presented as buffoonish and uncaring. Fran's decision to try and talk Norman down rather than let professional handle things or get the police really does come across as dangerous and reckless but the audience is pushed to consider her decision the right thing to do as we are presumably meant to identify with the rebel who buck's the system and goes with instinct or something. It also seems unbelievable that the police didn't actually catch wind at all of Norman's supposedly murderous intentions despite the fact this was a live broadcast.
The end is awful too. The movie wants to have it both ways with Norman returning to his ways and stalking his wife in a derivative and ineffective sequence in the old Bates house and still have Norman's uplifting recovery. It fails to do both and Norman's cathartic decision to not kill his wife comes across as meaningless and silly. He was ready to kill her up until the last minute but then suddenly everything is okay (The silly Norman confronts the demons of his own past in the burning house sequence doesn't really cut it and is as hokey and lame as this movie gets). The wife is of course cuddling up to good old Norman only hours after he almost killed her and their unborn child like everything is suddenly okay now. She must surely be the most forgiving person on the entire planet. Her marriage to Norman seems ridiculous but the fact alone that she gets over the fact her husband was on the verge of stabbing her to death because he didn't want to have a kid, let alone the quickness of her response is beyond absurd. The movie depicts Norman as still being a dangerous crazy so as to prop up the lame story but then goes the happy pop-psychology route.
Clumsy writing, direction, acting and plotting sink this unnecessary sequel, which only succeeds is cheapening the memories of the original (And to a lesser extent the other sequels even).
The ham-fisted handling of Norman's flashbacks almost spoils the previous movies. Olivia Hussey is woefully miscast as Mrs Bates and the way the character is so overtly sexualized in the movie really comes across as tacky and clumsy. She does not seem like the Mrs Bates we had come to expect from the previous entries (Not to mentioned too young and with an inappropriate accent) in the series and her crazy turns are very unconvincing. Everything about the flashbacks is clumsy and cheesy, right down to the laugh or groan inducing picnic sequence where Norman tells of the happy times with his mother- I almost expect to see them dancing across a flowery meadow or see them feeding some deer. The new boyfriend is a one dimensional jerk, a caricature of the evil step dad. The way he is portrayed you half expect to see him twirling his mustaches or torturing kittens any minute. The pivotal scene of Norman poisoning his mother and her lover is way over the top and extremely cheesy, complete with cheap 'I'm not dead yet' moments and melodramatics. The only effective bit in the sequence is the part when Norman looks unflinchingly at his mothers face as she slips away. The other murder scenes seem completely gratuitous and contrived- Woman throw themselves at Norman (When did he become such a chick-magnet), he kills them, we've seen it all before and these scenes aren't all the necessary to movie and seem like they have been shoehorned in to get some more bloodshed happening. On the positive side Henry Thomas does give a decent performance as the young Norman Bates.
The modern day material is pretty awful too. Norman's recovery and marriage to his Psychiatrist, and in such a short period of time, is utterly unbelievable and it is also very hard to take that he would be telling his story and feelings on a live talk-back radio show given the character. The staff at the radio show are smug and obnoxious, although we are supposed to root for them over the WASPish psychiatrist who of course presented as buffoonish and uncaring. Fran's decision to try and talk Norman down rather than let professional handle things or get the police really does come across as dangerous and reckless but the audience is pushed to consider her decision the right thing to do as we are presumably meant to identify with the rebel who buck's the system and goes with instinct or something. It also seems unbelievable that the police didn't actually catch wind at all of Norman's supposedly murderous intentions despite the fact this was a live broadcast.
The end is awful too. The movie wants to have it both ways with Norman returning to his ways and stalking his wife in a derivative and ineffective sequence in the old Bates house and still have Norman's uplifting recovery. It fails to do both and Norman's cathartic decision to not kill his wife comes across as meaningless and silly. He was ready to kill her up until the last minute but then suddenly everything is okay (The silly Norman confronts the demons of his own past in the burning house sequence doesn't really cut it and is as hokey and lame as this movie gets). The wife is of course cuddling up to good old Norman only hours after he almost killed her and their unborn child like everything is suddenly okay now. She must surely be the most forgiving person on the entire planet. Her marriage to Norman seems ridiculous but the fact alone that she gets over the fact her husband was on the verge of stabbing her to death because he didn't want to have a kid, let alone the quickness of her response is beyond absurd. The movie depicts Norman as still being a dangerous crazy so as to prop up the lame story but then goes the happy pop-psychology route.
Clumsy writing, direction, acting and plotting sink this unnecessary sequel, which only succeeds is cheapening the memories of the original (And to a lesser extent the other sequels even).