I saw it on its initial run and liked it a lot. I remember people walking out of the theater still buzzing about the shovel-to-the-head scene. Overall I left the theater thinking it was a solid sequel and probably better than I expected going in. Seems like the audience enjoyed it, too.
shareI also saw this in the theater back in 1983. I may have even seen it more than once. Anyway, liked it a lot, although I have second thoughts about the "twist" ending of the film as the years have past.
shareYes, I saw it back in 1983, which was sort of a letdown year for summer movies, as 1982 had been one of the best ever..1983 had Return of the Jedi rule the summer so the other studios probably didn't dare to compete.
It's funny as a 17 year old in 1983 I mostly did the same routine as the previous summer. I had free reign to use one of my parents cars, if I couldn't pick up one of my friends I'd go to the movies or drive in alone. Kind of a lonely existence but it meant I could go see any movie that I was interested in. I remember a few years before when I was 12 years old walking a few miles down a highway just to go sneak in to see R rated Animal House. Now at 16 or 17 I was just minutes away from seeing anything I wanted..plus driving to Quik Trip to grab a soda and a couple of magazines.
Anyway, back to the summer of 83..I just had graduated High School, I was a couple of months away from going to Air Force basic training. The Psycho II movie poster looked so good I don't think there was anyway I was going to miss this movie. I remember a couple of things. One, I had just started wearing contacts so when the lights went down I would test my vision by looking at the red exit signs with each eye, one was always clearer than the other. Two, I did notice they put a shadow of Hitchcock so I thought it was funny he was still in everyone of "his"movies. Three, the kids sneaking in to the basement, I thought the girl was very pretty. Four, I really liked Meg Tilly for some reason..she had a distinctive look and was a very good actress imho. Five, the shocking scene at the end where Norman kills his mom with the shovel.
Other than that I can't remember much else about that night. Psycho II was one of the better summer movies that year, right up there along with War Games and Trading Places. My loner/spoiled brat teenage days were about coming to an end, 5 Aug, 1983 Air Force Basic Training to be exact.
That's a nice memory..especially with the shift into Air Force basic training and adulthood.
I saw Psycho II at a theater, in an advance sneak preview hosted by a local radio station. A local DJ came out to introduce the film and said "As you know, this is about that strange guy named Melvin Bates." The full house crowd yelled back -- as one -- NORMAN Bates!
The funny thing I remember about Psycho II is that I had a date, but she refused to keep her eyes open when the killings happened. She asked me to warn her when something bad was going to happen and then to let her know when it was over.
So I will say that she closed her eyes on each murder, and each murder got a pretty big scream,
AND: when the biggest shock murder of them all occurred (somebody got that big knife right through the mouth and out the back of the head)...the crowd REALLY screamed and my date said-- with her eyes still closed:
"Hey, this one must be REALLY bad."
A fun memory of a slasher-shocker viewed ...through someone else's closed eyes.
Sad to say, I was not impressed by the film. The original Psycho was too historic, too well written and plotted for this to compete. Still, I was happy to see Anthony Perkins making some money off the character that had changed his life.
Nah, I was too young at the time and wasn't yet into scary shit (when we got a VCR about a year later, that opened floodgates and I saw Halloween, Halloween II, Terror Train, The Evil Dead, The Thing, The Shining, Without Warning... and yes, eventually Psycho II also in a short period of time). I wasn't very impressed by it, but now that I'm a lot older, I do own it on blu-ray. Love Jerry Goldsmith's score.
shareI did, and thought it was the best possible sequel to the original PSYCHO if anyone had to go and make one at all.
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