Psycho II and the legacy sequel

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is considered one of the canonical works in the horror genre, and its central character Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) has occupied a key space in the cultural imagination since the film’s release. The same is true neither for Psycho II (), which followed more than two decades later, nor for the two sequels that followed in 1986 and 1990 respectively. Despite their mixed-to-positive reception, the films have generally become footnotes in the story of Hitchcock’s original. I suggest this is because scholars only recently developed the appropriate language to discuss them, with Psycho II a demonstrable example of a legacy sequel decades before the term was conceived. This article therefore re-examines Psycho II through the lens of the contemporary legacy sequel trend, arguing that the film aligns with such works in its narrative, marketing and reception, thus making the case for this return to the Bates Motel as a key antecedent. Moreover, it argues that the entire franchise should be read in relation to notions of (traumatic) legacy, with Norman’s character journey in these four films analogous to that of other survivors in contemporary examples of legacy sequels.