Directed by Richard Franklin

Produced by Hilton A.Green, Bernard Schwartz

Screenplay by Tom Holland

Starring Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly

Running time: 113 minutes

Budget: $5 million. Box office: $34.7

Excellent sequel, despite the 23-year gap.  The seemingly cured Norman Bates returns to his old dark house and adjoining motel only to get caught up again in a web of murder and terror.  Perkins is much older but convincing as cinema’s most famous Mummy’s boy unable escape the troubles of his past life.  Despite a few plotholes – would Norman really be released and allowed to return to the same place of his troubled childhood and killings? – some sly humour, seat-edge tension and a script full of twists and turn help make this sequel to Hitchcock’s classic a winner.  Wisely opting to homage the original rather than imitate it, this comes out with a bite, thrill and shock of its own.