Psycho III (Patreon clip)
Movie OublietteApril 02, 20256:0211.06 MB

Psycho III (Patreon clip)

Continuing our theme of exploring sequels to films we cover in the main feed, it was only natural that we'd want to follow the surprisingly good Psycho II (1983) with the surprisingly bad Psycho III (1986) in our Patreon feed. On paper, it looked like a slam dunk: Anthony Perkins was returning to his iconic role as Norman Bates and taking up the director's chair for the first time; the writer is Charles Edward Pogue, who was simultaneously drawing attention for his take on The Fly (1986); and it picks up at the motel barely weeks after the shocking finale of the second film. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything, it turns out.

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[00:00:00] Hello, the clip you're about to hear is from one of our exclusive Patreon episodes. If you'd like to hear it in full, head on over to patreon.com slash movieoubliette and subscribe today to get hours of exclusive bonus content, nominate films for us to cover, and vote on the final verdict. All for ten dollars or less. It's a mini. It's a mini.

[00:00:28] Oubliette Minisodes

[00:00:55] Yes, with varying success. I wonder why you say that. So we're looking at Psycho III here. Yes. So this is the 1986 slasher movie that followed hot on the heels of Psycho II's surprise box office success.

[00:01:21] And Anthony Perkins managed to barter his way into the director's chair. So his deal for, I'll come back and do Psycho III if I can direct, and I'll direct it for free. And so they gave him the job. Had he directed before? No. Okay. Because it kind of shows. Yeah, it does. I just, I mean, I'm not a director.

[00:01:51] I could never direct anything. But I just felt underdeveloped. And kind of not a huge amount of thought gone in to just some of the direction. And it just felt like a bunch of characters that we've seen before on the set that we've seen before, not really knowing what was going on or what was supposed to happen. I don't know.

[00:02:21] Compared? Well, I went into Psycho II with so, such low expectations. And I was blown away by how well made that film was. I went into this movie with the same low expectations and it was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be. Like, it just felt a bit cheap.

[00:02:47] And it did really feel like a cash grab to me. Yeah, it did. I mean, if it's any consolation, Anthony Perkins agreed with you. He thought it was, quote, a very amateurish job. Right. And he said he was, quote, discouraged by the enormous amounts of opportunities missed.

[00:03:10] And I think he blames the studio to some extent because he, I think he was expecting to be surrounded by people who would collaborate with him to support him, to create ideas. But he was pretty much left on his own, which for many directors would be Nirvana. But for him, he found it very, very difficult. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:03:38] And I mean, even like the writing alone, it doesn't go anywhere. Like nothing is expanded upon, apart from the retcon of the retcon, which is just silly anyway. But apart from that, there's no story here. It's pretty much Psycho II again with different characters and then recycling all the kill scenes

[00:04:07] from Psycho I. And there's no originality, unfortunately. No. It's written by Charles Edward Pogue. Okay. I think the people who worked on Psycho II were asked about their potential involvement in this, but it didn't go anywhere. Yeah. So Charles Edward Pogue was riding high at the time because he'd just written the remake of The Fly. Oh.

[00:04:34] So Charles Edward Pogue was riding high because of that. And so he got this gig. Right. To Psycho III. I think they were developing around the same time. The only other credit of note he has is Dragonheart, the Sean Connery voiced dragon movie. Oh, yeah. Dennis Quaid. Yeah. It's okay. It's not terrible. It's not great. Yeah.

[00:05:00] And in the commentary track on Psycho III with Charles Edward Pogue, he makes it fairly clear that he viewed Psycho II with contempt. Really? He did not like it. Interesting. He definitely did not like the retcon on Norman's mother. So he's basically with this, he's tried to hew more closely to Psycho, to Robert Block style storytelling.

[00:05:28] Hence all of the callbacks and the quotes from the dialogue. Right. And re-retcons the retcon because he hated the retcon. So it's a little bit like... In Star Wars. The Last Jedi where they got so embarrassed by the Twitter feeds that they just changed everything. Obley Adminisodes.