ARTS
Page 10
Tuesday, July 12, 1983
The Michigan Daily
'Psycho II' makes insanity fun
I
By Bob Learner
T HE LATEST feat of modern psy-
chology is the rehabilitation of
Norman Bates. I wouldn't have thought
it possible, but Norman is as sane as the
next person now, and has come home in
the sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho. Psycho II will never become a
classic as has its predecessor, but as
directed by Richard Franklin and writ-
ten by Tom Holland, the movie is fun
and scary in its own right.
Psycho II begins with Norman's
homecoming. The trip up to and
through the house is filled with
memories for both Norman and us. As
Norman goes up the staircase and
checks the rooms, he is understandably
nervous - after all, this house was the
setting for his insanity. Under the
telephone he finds a threatening note
that is signed by his mother, who has
been dead for 20 years. It's just a prank,
says his psychiatrist.
At his job in a nearby diner, Norman
meets Mary, a pretty young waitress
played by Meg Tilly. She needs a place
to live, and Norman offers her a room
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in his house. Mary accepts - obviously
she never saw Psycho - and a close,
platonic relationship develops.
For about the first 15 minutes, things
seem to be going well for Norman in
this, his second chance at life. Then he
gets another note from his mother, and
he catches a glimpse of her in her
bedroom window. More notes and
glimpses follow, and it becomes clear
that someone is trying to drive Norman
insane. This someone begins to succeed
as Norman starts thinking that his
mother may still be alive.
This is as much of the plot as will be
revealed because Psycho II, unlike
Psycho, is a mystery as well as a
thriller. Suffice it to say that the mur-
ders soon begin, but we know that Nor-
man is not the killer.
An important aspect of Psycho, and
all Hitchcock films, was camera
technique. Franklin effectively mimics
many of Hitchcock's camera angles
and movements within the house, and
these copies serve to recall the first
film in our memories. As an example,
we see the mother's room exactly as it
was from exactly the same angle. The
entire history of the room is instantly
More explicitly than in the first film,
Norman Bates is a victim in Psycho II.
As sympathetically played by Anthony
Perkins, Norman is a person who is not
allowed to escape his past. As the notes
and glimpses start to take effect on
him, Norman begins to lose his grip on
sanity. Perkins modulates this move
away from sanity well, and carries the
film as Norman.
It is near the film's end that a major
problem surfaces. Holland gets a little
too clever, and plots himself into a cor-
ner. The gimmick he uses to resolve the
film is unsatisfying, and as a con-
sequence the final scenes don't have the
intensity they should. This is par-
ticularly disappointing because what
had come before was so entertaining.
Psycho II substitutes the undertones
of guilt and repression in Hitchcock's
Psycho for a campy sense of humor.
The movie never takes itself too
seriously, and wisely so. Franklin
shows good sense in not trying to outdo
Hitchcock. His aim was to make a good
sequel to a classic, and he has done so.
The Bates Hotel has been brought back
into business by good hands.
4
you can't go home
Anthony Perkins:
again.
I
restored in our minds, and Franklin is
now free to build on this history without
having to retell it. It is a tribute to Hit-
chcock that one shot of a room can
bring back so much.
'Superman III' comes in last
By Joshua Bilmes
I
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F OR A SEQUEL TO succeed, it
has to do one of two
things: it has to outdo its
predecessors, or it has to be totally con-
sistent with its predecessors, with no
element being much better or much
worse. The Star Wars films, with their
ever improving special effects, are an
example of the former. The Bond series
is an example of the latter. Superman
III is an example of neither. While some
parts of the film are equal to parts of
Superman, the Movie or Superman II,
nothing is better, and some things are a
whole lot worse.
The plot itself has some potential with
Richard Pryor playing a loser "kitchen
technician" (read dishwasher). Pryor
is employed as a computer program-
mer for a huge conglomerate by
Robert Vaughan. These two team up
against Superman and eventually ex-
pose him to a dose of kryptonite.
It fails to kill Superman, but it does
make him start to act evil, leading to a
conflict between the evilly inclinated
Superman and the good guy Clark Kent.
Both are played quite nicely by
Christopher Reeve.
All this does not sound too bad, and it
is in fact quite nice in comic book adap-
BOB DASCOLA
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I
yor fly, but not too high, in 'Superman.'
certainly the equal of Hackman's lair
beneath Grand Central.
But it is there that the good news en-
ds. For while Gene Hackman had ex-
cellent backing from Ned Beatty and
Valerie Perrine, Vaughn's cohorts, An-
nie Ross as his sister and Pamela
Stephenson as his mistress, are rather
awful, Stephenson especially. Why
anyone would want such a whiner as a
mistress...
The film's action and effects both fall
See PSYCHOTIC, Page 11
I
Christopher Reeve and Richard Pry
tation form. But as a movie, it is a dud.
The light comic touches and the villainy
are the things which come closest to the
first two films. The scenes involving the
Daily Planet, and especially Jackie
Cooper's Perry White, are the film's
highlights. Annette O'Toole's Lana
Lang is almost as good a love interest
as Lois Lane, who spends most of the
film off screen in Bermuda. And of
course, Richard Pryor is superbly en-
tertaining. Robert Vaughn is Gene
Hackman's equal, and his penthouse is
4