10 Hidden Gem '80s Slasher Horror Movies
1. Psycho II
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is obviously one of the most famous, influential films in the history of cinema, period, but what most people don't talk about is that picture's sequels. Granted, some of those follows-up are a little rough around the edges, but 1983's Psycho II is an absolute belter.
Picking things up as Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates is freed after 22 years in a mental asylum, Psycho II centres on Norman as he tries to reintegrate into society... all as a spate of new murders begin to take place in and around the famed Bates Motel.
What makes Psycho II particularly impressive is the performance of Perkins here, with him conveying a whole slew of emotions as his Norman genuinely doesn't know whether his "Mother" personality is back and committing these murders. Elsewhere, we have the presence of Lila Loomis, the sister of Marion Crane - Janet Leigh's character who was famously butchered in a Bates Motel shower in Hitchcock's 1960 picture - and some serious revelations about Norman's backstory.
It's always going to be a tough ask to deliver a sequel to Psycho, let alone a sequel that arrived 23 years after that classic, but Psycho II delivers a fascinating spin on the slasher subgenre.