Psycho III

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On Sky Movies Sci-Fi/Horror 10/12/09 08:00

Director: Anthony Perkins

Stars: Anthony Perkins, Jeff Fahey, Diana Scarwid, Roberta Maxwell

Year: 1986 Running Time: 93 mins Rating:

The Bates Motel has reopened for business, but Norman's management skills haven't improved. Thirty-odd years after the shower curtain came down on Marion Crane, a runaway nun (Diana Scarwid) seeks refuge by the house on the hill. Like its star Anthony Perkins, the third instalment has a sharp edge and an evil glint in its eye.

Review

Good news for horror fans. The Bates Motel is back in business.

'Could you tell me - is there an inexpensive place to spend the night around here?' asks runaway nun Diana Scarwid, fleeing from the desires of the flesh right into the arms of Hollywood's favourite psychopath (still Anthony Perkins) until Freddy Krueger came along.

Scarwid is even made up to look like Janet Leigh (complete with the same character initials) - but 'momma' don't allow... and, as the Perkins features assume the familiar twitch, the corpse count soon piles up.

'Can't have that sort of thing happening in my motel', Perkins chides Scarwid, after finding her, wrists slashed, in the bath, rather pre-empting his 'mother's' intention of murdering her.

'I guess I did leave the bathroom in a mess,' she apologises. Perkins smiles. 'I've seen it worse,' he says.

Such black irony sits well with Perkins' own direction, which piles on the gore with a tactful hand of which even Hitchcock might not have disapproved.