Psycho II
| Movie | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| German title | Psycho II | ||
| Original title | Psycho II | ||
| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| Publishing year | 1983 | ||
| length | 113 minutes | ||
| Age rating | FSK 16 | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Richard Franklin | ||
| script | Tom Holland | ||
| production | Hilton A. Green | ||
| music | Jerry Goldsmith | ||
| camera | Dean Cundey | ||
| cut | Andrew London | ||
| occupation | |||
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| chronology | |||
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Psycho II is an American psychological thriller from 1983. The film takes the story lines of the classic film Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock from 1960 on. Anthony Perkins was available again for the role of the psychopathic murderer Norman Bates , and Vera Miles from the original was also shown again. The film was directed by Richard Franklin .
action
Twenty-two years after the events of Part One, Norman Bates is considered cured and released from psychiatry amid violent protests by Lila Loomis, sister of one of Norman's victims . Although Dr. Raymond, who has already looked after Norman in the clinic, advises against it, Norman returns to his mother's house, which has now been unoccupied for years, and the run-down motel . This is now managed by Warren Toomey, who has converted it into an hour hotel. Norman gets a job as an assistant in a fast-food restaurant, whose management and staff know and accept his story. His colleagues include Mrs. Spool and the young waitress Mary. After some initial difficulties, Norman gets along well with the work. Dr. Raymond keeps in touch with him and asks how he is. One evening after work, when Mary tells him that her boyfriend threw her out of the apartment, he offers her accommodation in his house.
Suddenly strange things happen: Norman receives strange messages on slips of paper and phone calls that seem to come from his mother. Toomey fired by Norman is murdered. At the window of his mother's room, Norman sees a figure and finds the room itself furnished as it was twenty years ago. While Norman is then locked in the attic, a teenage couple sneaks into the basement of the motel, where the boy is stabbed by a mysterious figure. Sheriff Hunt, who is investigating the case, has to leave without having achieved anything, as Mary testifies that she has cleaned the basement in the meantime, thus giving Norman a false alibi. Dr. Raymond speaks to the sheriff and reveals his suspicion that someone is trying to harm Norman. It turns out that Lila Loomis is Mary's mother and, with Mary's help, wants to arrange for Norman to be re-admitted to psychiatry. However, the sheriff has so far no means to take action against the two. When Lila, against the will of her daughter, whom Norman has grown to love, wants to continue her project and dresses like Norman's mother, she is killed by the mysterious figure. Mary, who has long since regretted what she did, wants to flee with Norman. Fearing that Norman would slip back into psychosis and begin killing, she tries to influence him, disguised as his mother. In this disguise she is played by Dr. Raymond is surprised, who followed up his suspicions and followed Lila and Mary into the house. Mary even picked up a knife for the mother's masquerade and stabs Dr. Raymond when he approaches her from behind. When Norman sees the dead man and Mary dressed like his mother, he is convinced that his mother has murdered again. He urges her to hide in the basement, as he did before, as he has to expect the police to come. In the basement, Mary and Norman find Lila's body. Mary thinks Norman is the culprit, goes after him with a knife, but is shot by police officers approaching.
When the sheriff reconstructs the events, he comes to the conclusion that Mary and Lila wanted to drive Norman insane and that Mary must have committed the murders, the murder of Dr. Raymond. Norman is then released. However, the following evening Mrs. Spool visits Norman, claiming that she is his real mother and that she committed the murders to protect Norman; the woman he previously thought was his mother was actually his aunt. Then Norman suddenly kills her with a shovel and carries the dead body into his mother's room. A short time later, Mother's familiar voice is heard again , warning Norman of other women and asking him to reopen the motel.
particularities
The hallmark of the 1960s Hitchcock murders was the split personality of Norman Bates. “His mother” didn't want anyone to interfere in Normans and their lives. Dressed in their clothes, he became the murderer of many motel guests. This pattern is also retained in Psycho II , but a significant change from the original can be found in Bates' desperate attempt not to fall back into this illness of the soul. Driven back to madness by the behavior of the rest of the people, the murder of Emma Spool by Bates finally ends this concern and the film, which shows tragic moments in addition to elements of the horror film .
Director Franklin made little changes to the basic scheme of the original. Norman's hobby, birds and the stuffing of them, is also represented here. Two pictures with bird motifs also hang behind Norman's mother's door. A peephole is hidden behind the upper one of the pictures, as was the case in the original, only that the hole was hidden behind a picture with a rape motif.
The tracking shots are also very similar to the first film. After Norman thinks he has seen his mother at the window, he climbs the stairs to the house - an almost identical scene to that in Psycho , in which Lila Loomis, spellbound , climbs the hill to the house. The scene in which Mary undresses and gets into the bathtub is also based on Hitchcock's shower scene, although the episode now shows more nudity. Even the oversized shower head, filmed from below and whose water jets fall past the camera, was picked up.
The dolly zoom , which Hitchcock first used in Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead , was also used to create additional irritation for the viewer.
While the master of suspense still managed to generate the images in the viewer's mind, in Psycho II there are much more brutal, shocking murder scenes directly on the screen.
Reviews
Soundtrack
With the exception of the prologue (original scene from Psycho (1960) with music by Bernard Herrmann ), the soundtrack is by Jerry Goldsmith :
- The piece "New Furniture" characterizes the entire film. If the title sounds hopeful at the beginning, it becomes far more tragic in its sounds towards the end.
- "It's not your mother", on the other hand, is far more mysterious. The beginning is still quite calm with confusing sounds, until it finally becomes loud and shocking for a short time and then almost threatening. Soft sounds follow until the piece reaches its climax in loud string and wind instruments. The piece describes Norman's struggle with his thoughts, increasing confusion and finally relapse.
- The final "End Title" then finally marks Norman's defeat. The loud interlude can be heard in the film at the point in which Norman is standing next to his house in the late twilight and looking up at his mother's window, which can again be recognized by the well-known shadow outline. Then the piece becomes increasingly calm and relies on quiet and tragic sounds again.
Awards
One nomination each for:
- Saturn Award in the Best Supporting Actress category
- Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Film
More sequels
Two more sequels were filmed: Psycho III came in the 1986 cinema , Psycho IV - The Beginning in 1990 only for the US television production.
Web links
- Psycho II in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Psycho II at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Psycho II at Metacritic (English)
- Psycho II in the online film database
- Psycho II in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Psycho II . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , April 2006 (PDF; test number: 53 947 DVD).
- ^ Psycho II. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed January 7, 2017 .