Norman Bates is released from a mental institution twenty two years after it is revealed that he killed Marion Crane while dressed like his dead mother. Norman Bates is released from a mental institution after twenty two years only to find that he is losing his mind again. Norman Bates was committed to a mental institution after it was learned that he killed his mother, Norma Bates and used his hobby of taxidermy to stuff her and store her in his fruit cellar. Taking on his mother's personality, only when he was attracted to a female, he would kill the object of his desire. As if awakening from a trance, Norman would have no recollection of what he did, cleaning up the mess, thinking he was covering up for his mother. When Marion Crane, a pretty blond accidentally stopped at the Bates Motel on her way to see her boyfriend Sam Loomis, Norman, acting as his mother, stabbed her to death in the shower. He is finally caught and sentenced to psychiatric care.
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In Psycho II, Norman is let out of the institution after twenty two years. As he attempts to build a normal life, taking a job as a dishwasher at a local diner, he feels his old demons coming back to haunt him. Thinking that he has found a friend in a waitress at the diner, he offers the desperate Mary Samuels a room at the Bates Motel, after she is thrown out by her boyfriend. With his motel manager Toomey, renting rooms to drunks and degenerates, he decides to let Mary stay in his house instead. Suddenly, Norman begins receiving strange phone calls and notes from his long dead mother. Feeling as if he is spiraling out of control and convinced that his mother is alive again, he begins acting irrationally. We soon come to find out that his new roommate Mary is really Mary Loomis, the daughter of Lila Loomis. Seems Lila married her sister Marion Crane's boyfriend, Sam Loomis, after Marion was found dead at the hands of Norman. Upset that Norman had been released from the institution, Lila, with the help of her daughter Mary, concocts a plan to drive the mentally fragile Norman crazy, hoping to get him sent back to the institution.
When Toomey and a teenage boy, who was kissing his girlfriend in the Bates fruit cellar, are mysterious killed by, what looks to be, an old woman with a knife, the police question Norman. However, Norman was locked in the attic when the boy was killed and at work with Toomey was killed. Frightened by a shadow of a woman in the window of his mother's old room, Norman had rushed in to find his mother's room decorated the way it was when she was alive. Then, upon hearing a noise in the attic, he went up to investigate, half expecting to find Norma Bates waiting for him. Norman becomes convinced that he was the killer of Toomey and the teen, and Mary begins to feel guilty about her involvement in the plan to drive him crazy. She tells Lila that she doesn't want to do it anymore after finding out that it was Lila who was dressed up as Norma Bates in the bedroom window, that it was LIla who was the one who reinstated the room decorations, and that it was Lil was the one who locked Norman in the attic. Then who killed Toomey and the teenaged boy?
Lila sneaks into the Bates fruit cellar to put on the Mother costume that is hidden under some loose stones. Thinking that if she can drive Norman over the edge, she is shocked when she sees an old woman with a knife, who ultimately kills her. Norman's doctor, Dr. Raymond, had found out what Lila and Mary were up to and ordered Norma's body to be exhumed, to prove that she was still dead. Filling Norman in on what the girls were doing, he ends up getting accidentally stabbed by Mary who was trying to dress up as Mother to show Norman that it was just her and her mother scaring him. Mary gets accused of all the murders as Norman looks truly insane. In the dark of night Norman sets the table for tea in the Bates Kitchen, when there is a knock at the door. As if expecting someone, he opens the door, and the little old woman who owns the diner, walks in. Emma Spool takes a seat at the the table where she proceeds to tell Norman that she is his real mother and that Norma had adopted Norman when she, Emma, was institutionalized. It was she who was calling Norman and sending him notes, and it was she who killed those people. After all, she had to protect her little boy. As Emma sips her tea, Norman picks up a shovel positioned against the kitchen counter, and slams it over her head. Carrying her body upstairs to Mother's room, Norman is now completely insane again. We hear Norman talking in Mother's voice, “Don't play with filthy girls.”
Best part of story, including ending:
The story was a great sequel, picking up where the other left off, and keeping true to the character of Norman Bates. While he is a killer, you still feel bad for him.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene is when Norman is on the phone is his living room apparently talking to Mother. His friend from the diner, Mary Loomis, who is staying in a room in Norman's house witnesses the call and knows it is her mother Lila on the other end of the phone trying to drive Norman crazy. Lila is the sister of Marion Crane, the girl who was killed in the original Psycho, and she is plotting to send Norman back to the institution. The best part of that scene is when he looks at Mary and says, "but Mother, I ... can't ... kill her." This scene is the pivotal point in the movie when Norman has finally fallen off the edge of sanity.
Opinion about the main character:
What I like most about Norman Bates is that he was driven to his actions by his mother and he doesn't want to be bad. He truly doesn't know what he is doing and thinks he is covering for his beloved mother.
