The Psycho Legacy

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho has seen its share of special edition releases packed with bonus features (and rightfully so, because it's an excellent film).  The sequels, on the other hand, received no such attention (until the recent Blu-Ray releases of Psychos II and III).  Psycho fan Robert V. Galluzzo sought to correct that with 2010's The Psycho Legacy.

The documentary examines the original film, as well as its three sequels.  I suppose it can't really be called comprehensive since there is no mention of the remake, but the remake was awful and deserves to be forgotten.

Sadly, most of the players from the original have passed on, but Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Hitchcock appear in archive footage.  Assistant director Hilton A. Green is interviewed, and it's interesting to hear about his involvement with the series (he also served as producer on all of the sequels).  Mick Garris, who directed the fourth Psycho, is the series' only surviving director, but all of the films are well represented by other cast and crew members who show up to share their recollections.  Psycho II screenwriter Tom Holland expresses his admiration of the original and his desire to do a decent job in one of his earliest gigs.  Psycho III actor Jeff Fahey is a lot of fun as he explains just how his bizarre lamp foreplay scene came about.

 

Most people have fond memories of the series, but the documentary is not merely a piece of PR fluff.  Garris mentions the tension between himself and Perkins, who wanted to direct Psycho IV, and he discusses the difficult yet rewarding experience.  Perkins apparently didn't get along with Meg Tilly, who played the female lead in Psycho II, but she unfortunately doesn't appear in the doc to comment.

The Psycho Legacy moves breezily at a lean 87 minutes, and it doesn't waste time with plot summaries and clips from the movies, which is a common pitfall of these sorts of documentaries.  Instead, the focus is on interviews with the key players - and some random commentators, such as Joe Lynch, director of Wrong Turn 2.  What is with this guy?  He also popped up in His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, and he didn't have anything interesting to say there either.

The occasional odd interviewee choice aside, The Psycho Legacy is solid, and when it was over, I was left wanting more.  Fortunately, the DVD release comes with a bonus disc which is packed with extra features.  These include a visit to the Bates motel and house, a look at one fan's legit collection of memorabilia (fun fact: the "Mother" corpse from Psycho II comes equipped with pubic hair), and an interview with Psycho II cinematographer Dean Cundey, who does not appear in the documentary itself.  The best extra is a 1980s Q&A session with Perkins, who is candid, funny, and charismatic.  This delightful feature is worth the cost of the disc alone.