Psycho III

Psycho III (1986)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Anthony Perkins

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwald, Jeff Fahey, Roberta Maxwell

From: Universal

If you didn't know, my review for Psycho II is right below this one. I saw this last night and at least I can say it's average. See why in my Letterboxd review below:

Last night I finished my run of watching the theatrical Psycho movies by seeing the third film in the series, the one directed by Anthony Perkins himself, one of only two where he sat in that chair. I had only seen it once before-years ago-and I did not think it was too good. Seeing it again, I can rate it as average, but nothing more than that.

The plot: Norman is back to his old ways. He meets up with a drifter (Jeff Fahey in a wacky performance) who ends up working at the Bates Motel. He also meets up with a former nun who looks a lot like Marion Crane and that naturally causes problems with his mind. Then, a female reporter starts investigating him, as unlike many of the dumb citizens of Fairvale-including law enforcement-when strange things start happening again he isn't the number one suspect.

I can't fault the direction of Perkins, who was also great as always as old Norman. There were some nice arty shots. The macabre humor was usually pretty amusing. The weirdness at least kept my attention. A nude Jeff Fahey moving around two lamps in a fancy manner... strange. The general idea of Norman falling in love and the story told throughout all three movies of him being such a tragic character because of the messed up family he was part of... that was nice.

Unfortunately, I wish this movie would have been longer for the story it was trying to tell, there were some dopey moments, and the 80's slasher stuff of those topless women and graphic gore seemed out of place. I am not quite sure why Katt Shea's character was killed when all she did was sit on the toilet and go to the bathroom. It is interesting how Ms. Shea later became a director and an acting coach and her films were such exploitation movies as the two Stripped to Kill flicks, Poison Ivy... and yeah, The Rage: Carrie 2. Anyhow, they managed to fit in some stereotypical 80's A-holes you commonly saw in slashers of the time, and minor spoiler, more of those doofuses should have been slaughtered. That's the uneven nature of this picture.

Still, at least I can rate it average and that makes it better than many 80's slashers... and too many horror sequels, for that matter.