10 Best Movie Sequels That Took Decades To Arrive - Ranked

6. Psycho II (1983)

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Universal Pictures

The Previous Film: Psycho (1960)

Psycho II is one of those sequels that most people don't even know exists. Alfred Hitchcock's masterful original is so famous, so dominant, that it completely overshadows its surprisingly solid followup, directed by Richard Franklin in 1983.

Picking up 22 years after the first film, Psycho II follows the unhinged Norman Bates as he becomes, uh, hinged, after accepting the death of his mother and being released from a mental institution.

And shockingly - considering how rubbish horror sequels tend to be - it's actually quite good.

This is a much more flashy, safe movie than its predecessor - there's a lot of gory action and enough twists to make M. Night Shyamalan proud - and as a result, it lacks that slower burn that made Hitchcock's effort unbearably tense.

But Psycho II is much easier to enjoy for this same reason. There's always something happening - a death, a plot turn, a new mystery - and this blistering pace allows the sequel to distinguish itself from the much calmer original, in a good way.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.