Psycho 3

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid, Jeff Fahey and Roberta Maxwell

Director: Anthony Perkins

Release Date: 1986

Running Time: 1hr 33 minutes

Genre: Horror

Rating: R

Format: DVD

Synopsis:

Norman Bates is back again, this time he falls in love with a nun, which makes his "mother" jealous.

You know what they say? Three's a crowd. The third installment to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" was definitely one too many. Anthony Perkins was amazing in the original movie but I don't think he had to go as far as direct his own movie? I'm not entirely sure why Perkins thought he had to go to great lengths to make the third installment such an adult film? Is it supposed to be about sex?  I do however appreciate how writer Charles Edward Pogue went into more detail about Norman's personality, we get quite an in-depth look at Norman psychologically. It's just a shame the rest of the storyline isn't quite up to the same standards. Perkins's performance like always really isn't too bad, as for everyone else? Well...Diana Scarwid plays Maureen a nun who desperately tried to take her own life when Norman found her and rescued her. Scarwid's performance is pretty standard, although there isn't much characterization shown.

Jeff Fahey plays wannabe rockstar Duane who is also staying at the motel, although he doesn't seem to be playing many instruments, instead he loves playing with girls. The storyline just doesn't work, I know each director has their own way portraying a story, but it really isn't up to the standards of Alfred Hitchcock's original masterpiece. It's rather embarrassing actually. The story is far more psychological then anything else. Once again though if your familiar with the original story, it's just far too predictable. The spotlight has been and gone. You know what's going to happen it practically presents itself to you. It's certainly the goriest out of the three though.

This movie is truly appalling. The majority of the film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's almost like Anthony Perkins dumped a load of random people outside of Bates Motel and said, have a party, have some sex, in the process we'll introduce some murders. It's terrible. Norman Bates has fallen in love with a nun, but guess what? His mother is jealous. I honestly don't know what they were thinking when they came up with the idea for this movie? It's as if someone said let's make a movie just for the sake of making one, hey, even better we'll have Norman Bates...direct himself. Oh dear. The lighting is absolutely atrocious, most of the film is shot in the dark, but here's the thing, you can hardly see anything, so there's absolutely no suspense. Visually it's not that good to look at and the soundtrack doesn't work with the storyline at all. Such a shame.

Definitely the worst out of the trilogy, no suspense, no fear, some scenes are a little bit creepy, but that's about it. Remember how I mentioned before that I didn't like horror movies because most are an embarrassing mess? This is one of them. Highly dissapointed. Anthony Perkins will always be remembered as Norman Bates, but not from this movie. An embarrassing mess. What a shame. It's a no from me.

1/5 stars