Popular reviews

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  Review byIan West ★★★★13

  Psycho IIwas the perfect way to follow up Hitchcock’ssacred cow/genre monolith... updating the mystery element with an 80’s slasher whodunnit vibe with a reformed Norman being such a great angle for intrigue—it’s a movie no one asked for but ended up being one of my favorite sequels ever. The perfect mood for a follow up if you ask me.

  Then there’s III... where Perkins’ fornicatesPsycho’s lore with BloodSimple atmos via upped gore, nudity, neon drenched sleaze, and a Carter Burwell score—throwing in nuns, church towers, crazy rain storms, and a nutso Jeff Fahey as the rapey scumbag Duane Duke... who could have passed for a "The Hitchhiker" type character in one of theTexas Chain Saw Massacre sequels. The kills are superb, the lighting moody, and the noirish sleaze slasher vibe works for me big time courtesy of Perkins’ very strong direction—plus he’s damn wonderful yet again as Norman.

  What a fascinating franchise.

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  Review byTony the Terror ★★★★½1

  It’s hard to believe that I didn’t remember a lot of this film because it’s honestly pretty damn great! Perkins does a respectable job in the directors chair and I love all the neon trash lighting and general sleazy aesthetic with just the right amount of 80’s slasher influence.

  Hitchcock’s original is the ultimate B movie, but the sequel tried to take it in a different direction and class it up a bit and add a heavy mystery element. This one gets right back to its roots with Norman doing his thing and the kills are absolutely superb.

  This is a tough series to rate because I love all of the films for different reasons. This one is like the slutty sister of the family and let’s face it, she always has the best time!

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  Review byadambolt ★★★

  c'mon norman not while they're on the toilet man

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  Review bypd187 ★★★★1

  cant believe it took a whole movie + 2 sequels of guilt/repression/sexual pathology & violence for the psycho cinematic universe to finally introduce....catholicism. after legally rehabilitated just tryna live his life (more like NORMIE BATES) now tha psYcHo is a 80s slasher who knifes up horny teens like a jason flick.......which is kinda disappointing until (SPOILERS) that "shower scene" just floored me emotionally. this movie's all over the place, so many interesting choices that only a 1st-time director & weirdo reliving his persona after a quarter-century would make, and i wish more franchise actors got the chance to do the same. also how good is jeff fahey in this???

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  Review bySilentDawn ★★★½

  64

  What a nasty delight. I might even prefer this toPsycho II considering that, in lacking the further psychology of Norman found in the previous installment, it drops all pretense and embraces the pulpy, often disgusting visceral rhythms of the first film. It moves and plays like a neon mix of mid-80s slasher, with that existential repetition and lack of self-awareness, while also functioning as a manic riff on the themes of the original. It's very fun and, with the prominence of cartoons in the film acting as inspiration and tone-setter, often wacky in a productive sense. Worth a late-night watch!

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  Review byKevflix And Chill ★★★10

  #SlasherSaturday
  They sure get a lot of mileage out of the originalPsychoshower scene, don’t they?  While this one isn’t quite as much of a pleasant surprise asPsycho II, this third installment is still pretty good. This one feels a bit sleazier than the previous installments, with more sex, nudity and Jeff Faheyas a big-time scumbag. A couple good kills including an awesome toilet kill. (Not sure if it was #1 or #2 😛). Kind of wish there was a bit more ambiguity with regards to the killer in this, but I that’s probably a tall order for a third installment.  I liked Perkins’ direction for the most part though. The infamous house looked really awesome in some shots and the finalhandheld shot (so to speak) ofNormanwas really great. 

  Degrees ofKevin Bacon: 2
  1. Jeff FaheyandJosh BrolininPlanet Terror
  2. Josh BrolinandKevin BaconinHollow Man

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  Review byLara Pop ★★★6

  That smile again at the end! Hell, yes! Love you, Anthony Perkins.

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  Review byIan West ★★★★

  I love this movie, it’s neon sleaze lighting, and the influence ofBlood Simple on Perkins. Certainly makes for a fascinating entry in a fascinating franchise.

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  Review byAaron ★★★21

  Part ofHoop-Tober

  “I never went away. Don’t you know that by now? You can’t get rid of me. I’ll always be with you Norman. Always.”

  Into a black void, a voice screams, “There is no God!”

  A blonde woman is perched at the top of a belltower. She is at an old Spanish mission somewhere in the American Southwest. She is despondent; her God has forsaken her, as he is wont to do with his children, and she sees no reason to go on. Nuns clamber up the long wooden staircase leading to the belfry. They must stop this forthcoming suicide—not because they care particularly about the young woman, but because suicide is against their rules. The attempted negotiation…

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  Review byBruno Youn ★★2

  Being a tremendous admirer of the first two installments of the Psycho franchise, I was really looking forward to seeing the third one. Anthony Perkins commitment to the character is still there and he always has a magnetic screen presence. However, his debut as a director falls flat and the movie looks like an uninspired rehash of the first two. Apart from Norman Bates, the other characters are bland and I just couldn’t get the chills at all in the kill scenes. The third act gets quite over the top and the final scene didn’t make a lot of sense, ruining the climax a little bit.

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  Review byB E R T ★★★★

  Actually a really great entry in this franchise. It’s got the mid-80s slasher vibe to it which is a lot of fun, and all the side characters were great. Directed by the man himself Anthony Perkins, great job. I liked this more thanPsycho 2.

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  Review byanna nomaly ★★★★

  It’s such a joy to see Anthony Perkins taking over the director’s chair this time out, honoring Hitchcock with carefully-constructed setpieces, a penchant for Vertigo neons, and intense interest in the scenario’s psychology. Indeed, this installment makes clear how much of a unified and full-fledged horror franchise Psycho has become, with shower scenes, Marion Crane proxies, and characters wondering aloud if they’ve “broken some law” recurring ad nauseum. These aren’t simple callbacks or “fan service” as we know it today, but rather a metaphorical depiction of Norman’s mental state: he can’t escape the past, and neither can the viewer. Psycho III is the most unabashedly lurid entry in the series, quickly and bloodily establishing itself within the legacy of ‘80s…