Psycho II

With Norman Bates judged sane and released from mental hospital 22 years after the Crane shower murder, things revert to abnormal at the old Gothic house: Norman takes in a sweet young house guest (Tilly), and jealous Mother rears her murderous head again. But who's the real killer? Norman? Marion Crane's revenge-mad sister (Miles)? The fired motel manager (Franz), incensed by Norm's puritan attitude to his turning the place into a vice-house? While the film lacks the thematic depth and darkness - and the virtuoso style - of Hitchcock's, it does a fair job of recreating the exhilarating blend of horror and black humour, with a fair quota of outrageous narrative digressions and perplexing twists along the way. Franklin manages to pay homage to the Master's style without ever falling into the redundantly baroque excesses of, say, De Palma. Scary and fun, it's as worthy a sequel as one might reasonably expect.