Richard Franklin

And one movie that I have not seen in 40-plus years, or whenever part four came out of this series was when I watched them all, and I'd have to look up when that happened, but I'm fairly certain it was in the, the early '90s, and that was Psycho II from 1982.

This movie was directed by Richard Franklin, and it stars Anthony Perkins as the great Norman Bates.

Uh, Vera Miles, she plays the character of, uh, Lila.

Her daughter in the movie, which, uh, sorry, spoiler alert, but that's played by Mer- or Meg Tilly, and her name is Mary.

Today we're going to review Psycho 2.

Psycho II directed by Richard Franklin is a sequel that dares to step out of the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock's iconic original.

Released in 1983 this film picks up 22 years after the events of Psycho with Norman Bates played by Anthony Perkins being released from a mental institution deemed legally sane.

The film explores whether Norman can truly escape his past or if the sinister legacy of his mother will continue to haunt him.

His portrayal is both sympathetic and unsettling, capturing the complexity of a character who is both victim and villain.

Meg Tilly's Mary provides a moral anchor, her presence highlighting Norman's struggle to maintain his sanity amidst the chaos.

The film's direction by Richard Franklin, a student of Hitchcock, is commendable.

He skillfully blends elements of suspense and horror using camera techniques reminiscent of Hitchcock while adding his own flair.

And after Mabo, which was a very important film in 1997, how did that film come about?

Well, that was a terrific opportunity to work with Richard Franklin.

Somewhere along the line I was invited to talk to him about a project that he had in development called No Way to Forget on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and Inquiry into Deaths in Custody that Richard Franklin had worked on and was a profoundly affecting experience for him.

I'm not sure that he had at that time worked on Who Killed Malcolm Smith, another very important film from that period on that topic.

But anyway, Richard told me about the project and showed me the screenplay that he was working on for this short drama.

did what I could to be as supportive of that project as possible.

It looked like it was going to be a very strong film and I didn't feel that I had anything that I could add to it and that it was really a good opportunity to simply affirm the insights that he had brought to it and the creative treatment ideas that he'd already developed.

So that was where I met Richard Franklin.

There's quite a few of them.

I guess probably one of the, uh, [lips smack] the more prominent ones would be the, the film directed by Richard Franklin from 1981.

And I am, uh, drawing a blank at the moment.

I can't, uh, I can't think of the name of, um...

So I recently watched, I just like, I was probably doom scrolling or something like that.

And I found out about this movie called Road Games, a 1981 thriller shot in the Australian outback directed by a guy named Richard Franklin.

And it stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Stacey Keech is the main truck driver that plays a guy named Pat Quid.

And...

Franklin.

Richard Franklin, that's right.

Yes, director of Psycho 2.

Psycho 2, yeah, yeah.

Nice.

And so to kick it off, we're gonna be talking about Psycho II, which was released in 1983, directed by Richard Franklin, uh, starring Anthony Perkins and Vera Miles.

And this is the sequel to Psycho, and it's about the adventures of Norman Bates after he gets released from a mental institution 22 years after the first film.

So-