What happens when a closeted star directs a sequel to the film that made him a horror icon?

Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” To celebrate “Spooky Season,” this month we’re doing a miniseries focused on horror sequels that are even gayer than the original, and this week’s pick? 1986’s Psycho III, directed by the original 1960 film’s closeted star Anthony Perkins.

This week, let’s revisit the oft-forgotten spawn of the original slasher—one of the most iconic films in the history of cinema—to talk about the first “threequel” of our series. It’s one that happens to be directed by its queer star, taking many artistic risks to create one of the most fascinating (and surprisingly good) horror follow-ups in the canon.

How about we take this to the next level?

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It’s an understatement to say that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is one of the most revolutionizing movies ever made. Considered by many to be the first slasher, the film famously subverted audience expectations by offing its star halfway through the movie. But beyond that, countless elements have become iconic film imagery, from the chilling all-string score during the shower killing sequence, to cementing Norman Bates as one of cinema’s most memorable villains. It even changed the way audiences attended movies by being one of the first to have a strict start time that didn’t allow people in afterwards so as to not be spoiled.

The Set-Up

At a time when legacy sequels and continuations of “prestige” movies were not part of the cultural landscape, the announcement of a sequel to Psycho in 1983—more than twenty years after the original—raised some eyebrows and skepticism. However, Psycho II was met with a warm reception from audiences and critics, who saw it as a surprisingly worthy follow-up to Hitchcock’s masterpiece. That film sees Norman Bates (played once again by Anthony Perkins) being released from the mental institution two decades later, and moving back to his mansion and the Bates motel, where he’s once again plagued by visions of his late mother.

The film (which also saw Vera Miles reprising her role as Lila Crane) captured a the tone and spirit of the original, while also bringing the characters to a more modern time. It was in no way meeting the high bar of its predecessor, though during a time where horror sequels were mostly cheap and disposable artifacts, the surprising quality of this one stood out. But if they achieved unexpected success with one sequel, there’s no way they could get away with a threequel, right? Think again.

Three years after Psycho II came another continuation of the Bates saga: 1986’s Psycho III. This time, star Anthony Perkins decided to step behind the camera as director, with a screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue and an all-new cast of mostly young performers (it also featured one of the earliest scores from Oscar-nominated composer Carter Burwell, who went on to have life-long collaborations with the Coen brothers and Todd Haynes among his extensive oeuvre). 

Yes, Still Psycho

Psycho III takes place a few months after the events of the second movie, where—spoiler alert!—Norman killed a local waitress who had confessed to being his actual birth mother and, true to form, has kept her stuffed in his mansion since. When a troubled young runaway nun (who looks remarkably like Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane) arrives to stay at the motel, Norman finally finds someone he can see himself with romantically. But his mother still looms large over him, and she has other plans for their fates.

This third film is never able to reach the peaks of Psycho (but, once again, what could?), and it wasn’t as well received as the first sequel. However, it still makes for a fascinating and often wildly entertaining third entry in a series that had no business being as creatively indulgent or effective as it was. It’s a natural continuation of Norman Bates’ story, while also feeling like an effective ’80s-era horror slasher. 

Norman Bates was undoubtedly the role that defined Anthony Perkins’ career, and on his third go at it, he completely embodies the skin of the character with a perfect balance of lunacy and empathy, as his dark thoughts slowly leak from underneath his charming facade and take over. But this time, he takes this sensibility behind the camera as well with a keen directorial eye that makes us wonder what else could he have achieved in that role if it were not for his premature death.

While the first Psycho was famously photographed in striking black and white, Perkins bathes this one in saturated neon colors, and uses shadows, blocking, and framing incredibly well to reflect the unstable state of mind of the protagonist. It has a surprisingly sophisticated cinematic language, referencing classic films like Black Narcissus and evoking Italian giallos and neo-noirs. The kills are gnarlier than they could ever be twenty-plus years prior, giving these sequels an edge that the first one intentionally restrained from.

Next To Norman

Although the film is not textually queer, per se, it maintains the sensibilities that Anthony Perkins as a (closeted at the time) queer man brought to the character of Norman; a sensitivity and soft masculinity that could be easily be weaponized, complicated relationships with a mother, and an internal battle to repress a part of yourself that threatens to spill out. This time he takes these elements and embeds them directly into the visual language of the film.

This would not be the end of Psycho continuations and reinventions. A fourth installment titled Psycho IV: The Beginning, was released as a made-for-TV prequel in 1990, showing the origins of Norman Bates with Perkins reprising the role one final time before his passing in 1990. Then there’s out director Gus Van Sant’s shot-for-shot remake in 1998, which was initially met with harsh reception, and the later TV series Bates Motel, which saw Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga play Norman and Norma Bates, respectively.

Psycho II and III stand out as sequels that stayed surprisingly true to the spirit of their iconic predecessor, mostly thanks to the committed and commanding presence of Perkins, which (either consciously or not) tapped into his own identity, both as actor and director, to give the films much more complex layers that still resonate today.

Psycho III is available or digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video & AppleTV.

You can keep track of all LGBTQ+ films covered in our A Gay Old Time column via writer Jorge Molina’s handy Letterboxd List.

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