7. Psycho II (1982)
In 1983, audiences were able to catch up with Norman Bates who, after spending twenty-two years in an insane asylum, returns to Fairview to resume his life and reopen the motel. Director Richard Franklin and screenwriter Tom Holland (Childs Play, Fright Night) delivered a film that is moody, atmospheric, and chilling, while at the same time paying homage to both the original film and its celebrated director. Perkins reprised his role as Norman Bates, who in this sequel wants only to return to a normal life and be left alone. Vera Miles returned as Lila Crane Loomis, sister of Marion Crane from the original movie, determined that Bates belongs back in the mental institution. She and her daughter (Meg Tilly) will stop and nothing to send Bates back to the brink of insanity. The film was met with mostly positive reviews and the story capitalized on the presumed innocence and vulnerability of Bates. As it turned out, the victims in Psycho II were murdered by a woman who claimed to be Normans real mother, and the only crime Bates committed was the murder of this woman whom he stuffed at the films conclusion like so many birds in the motel Parlor. Psycho II reminded us how much the motel, and the Gothic house on the rise behind it, has cemented itself into our collective consciousness. And its success would be revisited in theaters three years later.