Anybody here seen the sequels?

I saw all three, II and III on release at my local theater, IV on Showtime cable television -- introduced by Janet Leigh herself.

When Leigh introduced "Psycho IV: The Beginning" on Showtime, it was preceded by a showing OF Psycho, and Leigh said "This is the first-ever nationwide broadcast of Psycho on television."

Which was sort of true. Psycho was famously pulled by the American BROADCAST network CBS in 1966, and never shown on network television. It spent the late sixties and seventies in release on "local affiliate channels," never seen by the whole nation at once, and then in the 80's on local broadcast AND cable channels.

But the 1990 Showtime screening of Psycho went out to all 50 states at once...and in other countries.

I watched Psycho IV on Showtime while I was in Mexico!

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CAPSULE THOUGHTS:

Psycho II. This was as historic in its own way AS Psycho because...nobody had ever tried to sequel a movie from 22 years ago. Today, its done all the time (Ghostbusters, Independence Day.) But back then...incredible. And ...a sequel to PSYCHO? The great classic? The worldwide blockbuster? Directed by the most famous Director of All Time?

Oh, well, a buck is a buck. Psycho II made a lot of money and opened the door to a LOT of sequels of older films. Moreover, Psycho II brought back "three stars of yesteryear" not much worse for the wear: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles and The Psycho House.

Psycho III. Three summers after Psycho II, this one debuts on the Fourth of July weekend. Wrote one critic: "Ah, the Fourth of July. Fireworks. Picnics....Norman Bates?"

I think Psycho III is much better than Psycho II, for this one really studies the original for its scenes and effects. We SEE Norman talking to his mother's corpse, get some background on his taxidermy habits, and watch what happens when Mother attempts a shower murder and the victim is already at death's door from a suicide attempt(Norman's compassion kicks in.) In addition to a "new" version of the shower scene, we also get a "new" version of the staircase fall killing and other "homages to the original."

But Psycho III didn't make as much as Psycho II, and thus Universal mounted Psycho IV as a cable TV movie...with some overseas theatrical releases.

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Psycho IV is famously called "The Shrink Scene: The Movie" because we get to see what the shrink told us: Norman poisoning his Mother(sexy Olivia Hussey) and her lover; Norman robbing Mother's casket and stuffing her body; Norman killing two other young women before Marion(he strangles one of them, poor form.)

All this in flashback(with Henry Thomas as Young Norman) while Old Norman(Anthony Perkins, two years before his death, distressingly wizened and frail) remembers it and contemplates killing his new wife and unborn child.

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Those are the capsules, but my overall impression of the sequels is that none of them are up to the standards of the original. Not in the script(story OR dialogue), not in the direction, not in the production value, and ...not enough..in the acting. Perkins just wasn't as good as he was in 1960. A number of good actors in the sequels weren't well served by the scripts, and a number of unknown actors just didn't register.

The one interesting feature to all three films were their musical scores:

Psycho II: By Jerry Goldsmith...one of the top two or three composers of several decades, alongside Bernard Herrmann and John Williams. But it doesn't sound like Herrmann's Psycho score.

Psycho III: By Carter Burwell, a few years before he became the resident composer for the Coen Brothers. This score is abstract and unnerving and weird. But it doesn't sound like Herrmann's Psycho score.

Psycho IV: Finally...they USE Herrmann's Psycho score. But the famous music is now on new scenes where it doesn't fit...and the orchestra has fewer players.