Meh., I admit, I kinda love the Jennifer Tilly Psycho II--it's far better than it ought to be, but the movies end there for me.
It's called Bates Motel--I guess they forgot there was a TV movie in the 80s called Bates Motel that was meant to be the pilot for a flop slasher anthology show.
I like Vera but damn, she has made some shoddy choices for projects.
I actually do have a visualization of Mrs. Bates and although I never connected a particular actress to that role, I am pretty certain Vera would not come up, even among contemporary actresses, or would not spring up in my mind.
I didn't like the story of Psycho 2 (we're gonna make him a killer again! and oh crap, he's gonna kill us!)
I liked Psycho 4, where Norman calls a radio station and tells his life story (with Henry Thomas as young Norman and Olivia Hussey as his mom). It was made just a few years before Anthony passed away.
And why does anyone ever want to mess with Psycho? It should be left alone in its glory.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
"It was actually Meg Tilly in Psycho II, not Jennifer. They are sisters, so it's easy to get them confused. Meg was also in The Big Chill."
Even though Meg lives not far from me, and I saw her in Virginia Woolf last year here, I *always* get the names wrong. It's something I actually have to think about--and I still get them wrong.
Psycho 3 is played for laughs, at least that's how I read it (the ice freezer, etc). I think II works the same way Halloween II works, or Nightmare on Elm Street 3 works--it's an adequate continuation, after it, there's nothing left to say, as much as I like Olivia Hussey in IV.
IV seems to completely ignore the existence of II, as I don't recall during any of the flashbacks any acknowledgement of the "I am your real mother" confession from the end of the second movie.