10 Movies Franchises That Went From 5 Stars To 1 Star

3. Psycho

5 Star: Psycho 1 Star: Psycho IV: The Beginning; Psycho (1998) Psycho is a masterpiece. No two ways about it. Everything about it is so meticulously constructed by Alfred Hitchcock that it's nigh on impossible to replicate. Quite literally so, actually, as Gus Van Sant tried that in 1998. That shot-for-shot remake wasn't the first return to the Bates Motel on screen, however. Psycho II only entered production after Hitchcock's death, although we feel he'd at the very least have been moderately impressed with outcome. Picking up twenty years after the original, the sequel sees a seemingly reformed Norman Bates attempting to adjust to normal life. And the twist this time? He actually is. The film deals with the public expectation of Bates and how the manner in which they deal with him ultimately creates the monster they so feared. It's clearly made to cash-in on the rise of slashers in the early-eighties, but stands as a better entry. The subsequent films are less commendable. The third, directed by Anthony Perkins, spends much of its time dealing with whether Norman's mother really was his mother and commits the cardinal sin of showing an extended shot of Norman all dressed up. But it's in the final film, a made-for-TV movie that serves as a prequel where things go too far. Spending its time telling the story we already know from expository dialogue from the original film, it's told from the perspective of an apparently cured (we've seen that before) Bates telling his story as a phone-in guest on the radio.