Ranking Psycho movies from Hitchcock to Van Sant.
Every movie is someone’s favorite movie. If you are a fan of the Psycho franchise and see your personal favorite movie ranked at or near the bottom of this list…don’t take it personally. Every movie has value.
Spoilers for the series and individual films are unavoidable.
5. Psycho (1998)
Don’t You Just Hate Reruns?
Nearly 40 years after the release of Alfred Hitchcock’s original Psycho, director Gus Van Sant decided it was time for a remake. Almost a quarter of a century after its release…we still don’t know why. Remaking classic films is always a dicey proposition at best…but Van Sant goes the extra mile to make it worth as little as possible. It’s one thing for a remake to tell the same story as the original, and another thing to do it scene for scene…shot for shot.
Producing a movie in this way only serves to make the differences between the films a distraction. When the acting choices are different in an iconic moment it sticks out even if it is a good acting choice. And there are good actors in this movie. Littered with the hottest indie stars of the late 90s…they feel trapped in an amateur production of a play that ran on Broadway for decades. Vince Vaughn finds himself in the worst situation of all. His Norman isn’t the sheepishly likable motel owner who you feel sorry for…he has an air of danger that Anthony Perkins never inserted into the character. This might be a fine take if we weren’t watching Vaughn say the same lines in the same shot of the same scene as Perkins already made famous.
If Van Sant had a point to making his Psycho this way, it never becomes clear what it is. It doesn’t seem to be commenting on anything in film or even on the original text. In fact, 1998’s Psycho doesn’t have anything new to say, or show, at all. Of course, this site’s motto is that all movies have value…we just…haven’t exactly figured out this one’s yet. Ranking Psycho (1998) last was a no brainer.
4. Psycho IV: The Beginning
Norman’s Back…Story
The biggest knock against Psycho IV is that decades later Bates Motel would do it better. Both a sequel and prequel to the Hitchcock original, The Beginning also marked the end of Anthony Perkins time with the character. He’s still in fine form. The made for Showtime movie has a simple plot device (Norman calls into a radio show discussing matricide) to set up what is mostly a flashback story of how Norman Bates became the man we meet in Psycho.
Psycho IV boasts an excellent cast to go along with Perkins. CCH Pounder is great as the talk show host Norman confides in, but the real stars of the film are Henry Thomas and Olivia Hussey as young Norman and his mother Norma respectively. There is a definite camp quality to the flashback stories…but the go for broke performance of Hussey and the perfectly cast Thomas elevate it firmly into “so bad it’s good” territory.
Original screenwriter Joseph Stefano returns to write the end of the original Psycho series. Genre stalwart Mick Garris does a good job on the TV movie budget. In the end this final chapter of the Perkins version of Norman is an oddly fitting end. At least until Bates Motel comes along and wrecks the curve.
3. Psycho III
Under The Influence
Ranking Psycho III was the hardest of the five movies. In a way, Psycho III might be the most interesting movie in the franchise. It hit theaters in 1986 when the slasher genre, that the original Psycho influenced, had hit the peak of its excess and frivolity. Viewers expected cartoonish performance and senseless violence…neither of which had been the hallmark of the Psycho franchise. Well…Psycho III delivered it.
To put it plainly, Psycho III is ridiculous. It’s also a lot of fun. Jeff Fahey steals every scene he’s in as Duke, the drifter musician turned Bates Motel assistant manager. If that’s not enough for you this movie begins with a suicidal nun going on the run after causing the accidental death of another nun (anunder?) This nun looks a lot like Janet Leigh’s Marion from the original film. They named her Maureen just in case you couldn’t put that together immediately.
The card that Psycho III has up its sleeve is, as always, Anthony Perkins. He takes over the director’s chair this time and it’s his understanding and care of the Norman story that makes dropping it into an over-the-top 80s slasher so appealing. There’s an earnestness to his portrayal, no matter how crazy things get, that makes these movies work. You get the impression that if this franchise had reached the “in space” level of sequel…damn it…Perkins would have found a way to make it interesting.
2. Psycho II
Is He Or Isn’t He?
Will society let someone like Norman Bates have a new life after release from a mental institution? Is someone like Norman Bates even capable of rehabilitation? These are the questions that the 23 year later sequel to Psycho attempts to answer. Let’s get this out of the way…no one was asking for a sequel to Psycho. Least of all, star Anthony Perkins.
Perkins found himself typecast by his role in the Hitchcock original. He initially turned down the offer to return. When he did agree to take on the part again the production went from planned TV movie to a full-on theatrical presentation. More importantly, the quality of the film rose exponentially. Perhaps drawing on the misgivings of playing the role that had haunted his career for over two decades, Perkins is astounding as a supposedly sane Norman struggling with who Norman Bates is.
After being released back into society Norman finds that you really can’t go home again. The voices and visions return, and murders start to happen again. Is Mother back to her old tricks…or is something else at play? The movie has a blast playing in this sandbox and Perkins is at his best dealing with the emotions of a still tormented Norman. The ending is memorably absurd on first watch…but when you think about what it has to say about the Norman character…it’s a necessary, and welcome, absurdity. It all combines to ranking Psycho II fittingly…number 2.
1. Psycho
The Mother Of All Killer Movies
Sometimes the obvious answer is the right answer. Ranking Psycho anywhere but first would be the wrong one. There are some fun movies on this list. I’d argue Psycho II might even rise to the status of great. But fun and arguably great pale in comparison to bona fide masterpiece. Make no mistake, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is a masterpiece.
There isn’t much about Psycho that hasn’t been poured over and analyzed. They even made a movie about the making of the movie. If Halloween fathered the slasher craze of the 80s, Psycho was the grandfather…or…more appropriately, grandmother. Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, Hitchcock’s movie improves upon it in every way. Over the more than 60 years since it came out, it has been stolen from, paid homage to and referenced as often if not more than any other film in history. The infamous shower scene is maybe the most famous scene in all of cinema. The unexpected loss of its main character part way through the movie is a twist that’s been attempted over and over since.
The passage of time and its place in pop culture have done nothing to dull Psycho’s standing. Expert direction, a script that turns Bloch’s story into a more believable mystery, and a central performance by Anthony Perkins that effortlessly draws you to the wrong side of the coin…Psycho is as close to perfect as storytelling gets. This story of a boy and his mother will hold its place as a lasting and influential movie for well over another sixty years.
Psycho Links
Rent/Buy Psycho on VOD from Vudu.com
