9 Movie Sequels That Ruined Great Characters

Sequels within the horror genre can be particularly damaging to their villainous characters. Once terrifying enough to inspire fear in the hardiest of horror fans, horror sequels tend to add more and more backstory until their villains are the opposite of fearsome. Such is the case with Norman Bates.

Though the first two Psycho sequels no doubt had Alfred Hitchcock rolling in his grave they weren’t all THAT bad. Sure, they added titbits of Norman’s f**ked-up family history and didn’t hold a candle to the classic original but they were at least vaguely watchable and maintained at least some mystique for Norman. Psycho IV: The Beginning, however, was pure exposition.

Thanks to a fairly explanatory voiceover at the end of Hitchcock’s Psycho we already knew that Norman had a pretty unhealthy relationship with his mother – he did kill her, dig up her body and posthumously assume her identity after all.

But Psycho IV went full-on oedipal with the incestuous undertones of their relationship more than just hinted at with a blow-by-blow account of just how Norman turned out the way he did as he confesses his life and crimes on a radio talk show phone-in.

It’s exposition we didn’t need and didn’t ask for when the minimal details were already enough and far more effective in presenting Norman as a frightening villain.