PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING (1990) (Blu-ray Review)

PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING (1990) 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: 
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Mick Garris 
Cast: Anthony Perkins, CCH Pounder, Henry Thomas, Olivia Hussey, Warren Frost

Synopsis: A seemingly rehabilitated Norman Bates (Perkins) is drawn to a late night radio show where the host (CCH Pounder, Tales From The Crypt Presents: Demon Knight) encourages him to share his views on the topic of matricide. Reliving his childhood, Norman recounts his trials of a young boy (Thomas, Ouija 2) living with his widowed schizophrenic mother (Hussey, the original Black Christmas). These haunting memories are more than just disturbing visions of the past; they threaten to rekindle his killing urge in this spine-tingling thriller directed by Mick Garris (The Stand, Masters of Horror).

Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) catches up with our old friend Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) a few years after his incarceration at the end of the third movie, he been rehabilitated ...sure he has. We catch up with him at his home listening to a call-in radio program hosted by Fran Ambrose (CCH Pounder, Demon Knight) who is discussing matricide, a topic close to Norman's heart, and coincidentally her guest on the show is  Dr. Richmond, Norman's, none other than former psychologist from the asylum. Norman of course cannot resist the urge and calls into the show under the alias "Ed" and speaks about his past and also says that he plans to kill his pregnant wife this very same night. 

What follows is a series of flashbacks to Norman's formative childhood and teenage years as he tell his story beginning with the death of his father, Norman is left alone to care for and in care of his increasingly unstable mother. Norma has some serious issues with her Norman's burgeoning sexuality curiosity, admonishing him for his sexual curiosity and dressing the poor kid in women's clothes as punishment when he pops an erection next to her in bed... hmm, it's all starting to make sense now. Young Norman is played by Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and he does a decent turn as the troubled Norman, he looks the part but for me he just never plugged into the character. Norma is played by Olivia Hussey (Black Christmas) who plays nutty Mama Bates nicely with a mix wide-eyed insanity and lunatic parenting, treating Norman poorly while carrying on a torrid relationship with her new lover Chet (Thomas Schuster). Chet is a brute of a guy and bullies the young Norman. His contempt for the man and his tormentor mother finally boils over when Norman serves them both poisoned iced teas, the lovers die a vomitous and wonderfully painful death, which was my favorite scene in the movie natch. 

In the aftermath Norman is racked with guilt over the murder of his mother which develops into the dissociative identity disorder we know him so well for, becoming the murderous young man we met in Alfred Hitchcock's 1965 classic. Norman murders a pair of women who are unlucky enough to turn him on, triggering his alternate personality of "mother", these are some quality scenes, but the good stuff is too few and far between. Thomas does not exactly fill the shoes of Perkins so much as make a decent enough place holder in the story, managing to hold his own against Hussey's version of Mother. Perkins does just fine taking up the role of Perkins again, he has a charm and menace that comes easy, after playing the character over a span of thirty-five years the guy can probably turn it on and off like blinking an eye, the guy still had it, even if the script didn't. 

As the movie moves forward radio host Fran Ambrose and Dr. Richmond start to piece together who "Ed" is and argue over what course of action should be taken. In the end we discover the reasons why Norman is planning to kill his wife, who is a psychiatrist, which smacks a bit of Harley Quinn and Joker, I also thought that Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers might have borrowed that scene where Loomis is listening to the radio program about Michael Myers. While I rather enjoyed the flashback scenes the wrap-around radio program nonsense did nothing for me, it felt tacked-on, not developed, not needed and padded for running time. This prequel feels very much like the made for TV movie it was, it lacks scope and some grandiosity, but it is not awful. Mick Garris is a serviceable director and he does what he can with the mixed bag of a screenplay, which was penned by Psycho (1965) scribe Joseph Stefano, though this is a shadow of his former screenplay.  

Audio/Video: Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory looking solid, the anamorphic 1.78 widescreen looking fairly sharp with some nice depth and clarity, the grain can be a bit course in the darker scenes, but overall this is a very pleasing presentation. The lone audio option is an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 track with optional English subtitles. The track is nicely balanced and fairy robust. the score used which Bernard Hermann's iconic original score in addition to some new stuff from Graeme Revell sounds great. 

The disc includes an Audio Commentary from Director Mick Garris and Actors Olivia Hussey and Henry Thomas, Garris is always a great commentator and an astute moderator, this is a great track in which the director is very candid about his experience working with Anthony Hopkins who was not impressed my the young director at the time of filming. 

There's also a half hour making of doc with new interviews from Mick Garris, Actors Henry Thomas And Olivia Hussey, rare behind-the-scenes video of the making of the movie, a gallery of on-set photos and video of the movie being scored by Graeme Revell. All things considered this is a pretty packed edition, great to have all of the Psycho movies on Blu-ray here in the U.S.. 

Bonus Features
- NEW Audio Commentary With Director Mick Garris, Actors Henry Thomas And Olivia Hussey
- NEW The Making Of Mother: An Interview With Make-up Effects Artist Tony Gardner (28 Mins) HD 
- Rare Behind-The-Scenes Footage From Director Mick Garris (13 Mins) HD 
- Photo Gallery Of Rare Photos From Mick Garris (6 Mins) HD 
- A Look at the Scoring (of) Psycho IV (6 Mins) HD 

I only vaguely remembered watching this on cable back at the start of the grunge decade and had only small hope of it succeeding as a prequel to the iconic suspense classic, but at least it wasn't awful, just not very good, and as such it probably wont ave huge appeal aside from the die-hard collectors, but for those who need it this new edition from Scream Factory looks and sounds great in HD and has some worthy extras. 

DESTROYER (1988) / EDGE OF SANITY (1989) (Blu-ray Review)

DESTROYER (1988) / EDGE OF SANITY (1989) 

DESTROYER 

Label: Scream Factory:
Region: A
Rating: R 
Duration: 94 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Option English SDH
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Robert Kirk 
Cast: Anthony Perkins, Clayton Rohner, Deborah Foreman, Lyle Alzado

The late-80's were a fertile time for prison-bound horror movies, in just '88 and '89 alone saw the release of Prison (1988), The Horror Show (1989) and Wes Craven's Shocker (1989). Scream Factory have seemingly cornered the market on late eighties prison-set horror movies having released all three on Blu-ray, and they've added Destroyer (1989) to the docket, yet another jail house supernatural thriller featuring a hulking killer sent to the electric chair for his crimes, who has now come back to continue his murder spree. 

Serial killer Ivan Moser (former NFL star Lyle Alzado) is a convicted serial killer, having raped and murdered twenty-four men, woman and children before being apprehended, the last of his victims was a popular game show hostess, along the lines of Vanna White. While sitting on the chair waiting to be fried for his crimes he obsesses over a nearby TV screen showing a rerun of the game show, which is a nice perverse touch. The roided-out Alzado is a frighting hulk of a man bursting at the seems, with his muscular and veiny physique the guy as if he is about to pop like a muscular zit, his eyes nearly bulging from their sockets, the guy looks like he is amped-up on steroids and a steady diet of that reportedly tasty '80s cocaine. While the big guy is being zapped by millions of volts on the chair there's a power outage, in the ensuing panic Moser rises up from the dead, an ensuing prison riot closes the prison down for good, and it is assumed that Moser died during the murderous riots, though no body has ever been recovered. 

Eighteen months later we have a b-movie director (Perkins) making a sleazy a women-in-prison movie at the now closed down penitentiary along with he screenwriter David Harris (Clayton Rohner) and his stunt-woman girlfriend Susan (Deborah Foreman, April Fool's Day), plus a cast of jailhouse background actors, including the leading lady who is a big-haired no-talent. Also among the crew is a nerdy special effects guy named Rewire (Jim Turner) who does the electrical and special effects work on-set, he seems to be the comic relief with a mix of nerdiness and stoner antics.

In the media the screenwriter mouths off about the riot at he prison, placing blame for the tragedy on the former prison warden named Kirsh (Pat Mooney), prompting an angry set-visit from the former warden, who becomes the first in a series of grisly murders perpetrated by the thought-dead Moser who burns the warden with an acetylene torch while he drops a turd in the toilet. 

The movie has some cheap prison atmosphere about it but lacks much if any charisma, certainly the venerable Anthony Perkins lends some credibility to his role as the director but this is a small change role for the guy, the eighties were not kind to the actor and most of his roles were not up to par with his talents. NFL-er Lyle Alzondo is a big guy with menacing physique but the character is devoid of any depth, his physicality is imposing and I wouldn't want the guy to get me in a headlock, but he's just a big muscular body with no character aside from an annoying and maniacal laugh, at least Horace Pinker from Shocker was fun.. 

Even by late-'80s standards the gore is pretty tame and won't do much for horror fans, a charred body is about as gory as you're gonna get, not even the presence of '80s scream queen Deborah Foreman (Waxwork, April Fool's Day) could give this one any juice, not an awful movie but just a lacklustre '80s slasher. 

Destroyer arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a new HD transfer derived from the only known surviving elements, which were not the original negative. The image is pretty solid with some decent fine detail, but the image doesn't have a lot of depth to it. The grain can be heavy at times, but all things considered the image looks good. The English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo audio sounds good, clean and well-balanced, optional English subtitles are provided, the only extra for the movie is a standard-def trailer. 

Special Features: Trailer (1 Mins) 

EDGE OF SANITY (1989) 

Label: Scream Factory:
Region: A
Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Option English SDH 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Gérard Kikoïne
Cast: Ben Cole, David Lodge. Sarah Maur-Thorp, Anthony Perkins, Glynis Barber

The second half of this Anthony Perkins double feature is the more intriguing Edge of Sanity starring Perkins in a kinky version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Perkins starring as Dr. Jekyll, a man of science with good intentions who's alter ego is unleashed after a lab accident.  At the top of the movie we are treated to a nightmare sequence which reveals how Jekyll was traumatized as a young boy after catching his father in the barn with a whore, the experience has had long lasting psychological affects on the boy which have haunted him on through to adulthood. 

Jekyll's most recent experiments are based around the medicinal use of cocaine as an anesthetic, one night a lab monkey knocks over the cocaine into another chemical and the ensuing vaporous cloud has a transformative affect on the doc, transforming him into his the crack-smoking lecherous murderer Mr. Hyde who roams opium dens and whorehouses of Victorian London in search of sexual kicks before embarking on an erotic murder-spree. 

Perkins was already infected with HIV at the time of the movie and his transformation into Hyde shows a bit of the emaciated facial features I associate with the disease, the transformation is rather upsetting in a way on that level. However, it was great to see Perkins in a meatier role after his appearance in the sub-par slasher movie Destroyer, showcasing his talents as he transforms from a well-mannered man of science to an immoral killer, some of the psycho sexual scenes are very uncomfortable to watch. It may not be a rape-revenge movie but the scenes of nudity are uncomfortable to watch, with Mr. Hyde seducing, torturing and then murdering each of his victims, usually slashing their throats. 

The story of Jekyll and Hyde is one of the most told stories on the silver screen, but this version was something unique. I found Perkins depraved and creepy as the sinister alter-ego unleashed, the way they weave in elements of Jack the Ripper is also a treat. The movie is set in Victorian era London but I have to say this is the most '80s looking Victorian movies I have ever seen, but it worked for me, the stylish cinematography is rich with lush visuals and good atmospherics, including the fog-drenched streets of London you would expect of a Ripper story.

The 91-minute R-rated uncut version of Edge of Sanity arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory looking awesome on Blu-ray, there's a nice layer of fine film grain, plenty of fine detail and the colors are strong, with the vivid reds and blues really popping off the screen. The English DTS-HD MA 2,0 stereo audio sounds great. As with Destroyer the only extra is a trailer for the movie. 

Special Features: Trailer (1 Mins) 

I love the Scream Factory double features, they may not all be venerated cult-classics but they're always fun for us lovers of b-movie cinema, who can even appreciate the modest charms of something like Destroyer, which scrapes the bottom of the '80s slasher barrel. Edge of Sanity is an awkwardly kinky take on Jekyll and Hyde with a standout performance from Anthony Perkins and is worth the price of purchase alone on my opinion, I only wish we had some new bonus features to go along with it. 3/5 

 

Blu-ray Review: PSYCHO III (1986) Collector's Edition

PSYCHO III (1986)
Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 93 Minutes

Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Diana Scarwid, John Fahey

Director: Anthony Hopkins
Tagline: Norman Bates is back to normal. But Mother's off her rocker again. 

Psycho III begins with a nun (Diana Scarwid) screaming "There is no God!" and one might assume this is a commentary on yet another sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) but you would be mistaken. In fact the first sequel to the iconic film is actually a pretty fantastic watch despite the odds and Universal soon began filming a second sequel with Anthony Perkins in the directing chair and a script by Charles Edward Pogue (Cronenberg's The Fly) based on characters created by Robert Bloch, but not on Bloch's own sequel novelization.

Anyway, back to the film we have the Nun (Diana Scarwid, Rumble Fish) suffering through a spiritual crisis attempting suicide at the top of a bell tower, this whole scenario smacked of the finale to Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), and while she is unsuccessful in her bid for death she does accidentally send the Mother Superior plummeting to her own demise... oops. Packing her suitcase she leaves the Nunnery and wanders the desert until she is picked-up by wandering musician Duane Duke (Jeff Fahey, Planet Terror) who attempts to have his way with the pretty lady but when she puts up s fuss, pissed off he kicks her to the curb during a torrential down pour in the middle of the desert.

As fate would have it the two both end up at Bates Motel where Duane is offered an assistant manager position by Norman which we viewers know was left vacant in pt.2, Dennis Franz's character taking a knife across the face. It's a nice touch when Duane tells Norman he doesn't plan to stay in the position long to which Bates replies "No one ever does". The Nun, whose name is Maureen, catches the attention of Norman back at the greasy spoon diner from the previous film, she bares a striking resemblance to Norman's most famous victim, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and even shares the same initials "M.C." which Norman spots on her luggage, disturbed by the strange encounter Norman flees the diner only to find that Maureen has taken a room at the Motel, in the very same room as Marion Crane.

From here the film draws several parallels to the first film as Norman expectantly begins to lose his mind and does Mother's bidding, in fact when he peeps Maureen in the shower through his favorite spy-hole Mother attempts to repeat certain events we are well familiar with but when the shower curtain is pulled back to deliver the fatal blow the young woman has already slit her own wrists, in her odd state of mind Maureen envisions the Virgin Mary holding a cross instead of Norman in drag with a butcher's knife. At this point Norman snaps back to reality and saves Maureen's life, afterward a relationship ensues but Mother's none too pleased with this turn of events, stirring things up even more is tabloid reporter Tracy Venable (Roberta Maxwell, The Changeling) who arrives to investigate the disappearance of an elderly waitress from the diner, those who saw the first sequel know quite well what happened to her, and so too does Tracy. 

This is a pretty sleazy entry, it's a bit darker tonally, it's more sexually exploitative and the kills are a bit more gruesome, I really enjoyed all these elements. Not sure what I was expecting from Perkins turns as director (his first of just two) but it feels assured. Much as with the previous sequel the deaths here are very slasher-esque, one woman seated on a toilet unexpectedly has her throat slashed, it's great stuff with lots of blood, as is a payphone booth kill of a young slut played by Juliette Cummings of Slumber Party Massacre, neat. Another murder features someone getting their head smashed in with a guitar, a nightmarish follow-up sequence ensues as Norman attempts to dispose of the body but instead ends up in the swamp himself, I really do love the amped-up slasher tendencies that the sequels bring to the franchise. 

Perkins is fantastic as Bates, Fahey in an interview on the disc talks about how uncanny it was to work with Perkins who would snap into character in a split second, it's quite obvious the character was near and dear to the actor and it shows in his nuanced performances as both the troubled son and vengeful mother, one fantastic touch is during a particularly brutal scene Mother takes a second to straighten a crooked picture on the staircase, it's a small moment but I loved it. Fahey is fantastic as the sleazy musician Duane, he exudes a dangerous and sexy charm, and is the perfect replacement for Toomey (Franz) from the first sequel, plus Scarwid is admirable as the spiritually troubled nun as is Maxwell as the nosy reporter, another fun sequel that rises to the challenge with a great cast who bring their a-game. 

Of course, there are the prerequisite nods to the first film including bringing out the iconic black and white shower scene yet again, a skewed re-creation of that very same scene and a tragic version of the staircase death. There's also an underlying sense of dark comedy at play, check out the ice machine scene, it's a very sly film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a slasher fan there's just not much I didn't like about the film, this is fun stuff, sure it's a bit cheap when compared to Hitchcock's original but when taken on it's own merits in context of the period I thinks it's pretty great, it's not a classic horror thriller, but it's a fun sleazy slasher. 

Blu-ray: Scream Factory bring Psycho III (1983) to Blu-ray with an MPEG4-AVC encode and it looks quite nice on par with what we saw with Psycho II with a nice layer of fine film grain and strong colors, the blacks look just great which is good for us, this is a very dark film. sourced from a great looking print I am quite happy with what we get in the video department, a very pleasing 1080p hi-def image with good contrast. 

The DTS-HD Master Audio options include both the original stereo mix and a newly minted 5.1 and it's a very nice surround audio presentation with some nice use of the surrounds. Dialogue, Carter Burwell's score plus sound effects are clean and well-balanced, it's a very nice audio presentation that offers both the original stereo and a 5.1 mix that makes nice use of the surround system. 

This set features a few more extras than what we found on the Psycho II disc beginning with a commentary with Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue moderated by Michael Felscher of Red Shirt Pictures and it's a great anecdotal commentary, even speaking poorly of Holland's script for Psycho 2, his reasoning doesn't quite wash as his own script strays from the original quite a bit. There about 42 minutes worth of interviews with actors Jeff Fahey and Katt Shea and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Michael who fondly recalls his time at Universal and returning to work on this sequel, also interview is 80's scream queen Brinke Stevens who was a body double for Diana Scarwid on this film. The Jeff Fahey interview is great, this was an early and important role for the up and coming star, he has many great memories of the cast and his time on-set. 

Scream Factory doesn't offer reversible artwork this time around but we do get a slipcover featuring the theatrical artwork of Norman offering a room key shaped like a dagger. 

Special Features:

- New Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue
- Watch The Guitar – New interview with Actor Jeff Fahey (16:49)
- Patsy’s Last Night – New interview with Actress Katt Shea (8:40)
- Mother’s Maker – interview with Special Make-Up Effects Creator Michael Westmore (11:12)
- Body Double – interview with Brinke Stevens (5:14)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:54) 

- Still gallery (8:17) 

Verdict: Psycho III (1986) is a fun character study of Norman Bates with some effectively grisly 80's slasher style tendencies, it has a dark vein of humor that I appreciated and some inspired nods to the original film, plus some entertaining exploitative elements, which might turn off some but I loved it. I give this a high recommend to 80's slasher fans, if you haven't watched either of the sequels I would dare say they're required viewing, if not you're missing out. Scream Factory offer up the film with a great hi-def presentation and some value-added extras, what's not to like?  3.5 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: PSYCHO II (1983) Collector's Edition

PSYCHO II (1983) 

Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Shout! Factory / Scream Factory

Region Code: A

Rating: R

Duration: 113 Minutes

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: Richard Franklin

Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dinnis Franz

Tagline: It's 22 Years Later and Norman Bates is Coming Home...

Wow, a sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) ...the size of the fucking balls on Universal Studios in 1983 and just a few years after the Master of Suspense's death, you just know they would never have done it while he was still drawing breath. I cannot even imagine what that pitch was like, then again I can't believe Universal greenlit Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake of it in 1999 either, that was just a bad idea from the ground up. In '83 it was decades before the remake craze possessed Hollywood, shit now they're remaking John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and it won't be long until Jaws (1975) gets the re imagining treatment, like there just haven't been enough Jaws rip-offs over the years, huh? 

Anyway, I remember seeing this one in the video store shelves ages ago and watching it, even as a kid I scoffed at the idea of a sequel to Psycho (1960) but I just had to know what they'd done to besmirch the original, call it a morbid curiosity. truly, I was expecting something quite awful but oddly enough I was wrong. Directed by Australian filmmaker Richard Franklin who had previously directed the neat ozploitation oddity Patrick (1978) about a comatose patient with telekinetic powers and the road trip slasher film Road Games (1981) starring Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, he didn't seem like the obvious choice, makes me wonder who turned down the job beforehand. The script was written by a young writer named Tom Holland who would go on to direct Fright Night (1985) and it was lensed by cinematographer Dean Cundey fresh of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) and John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), on just talent alone this is actually starting to sound pretty good on paper 

Onto the cast we have Anthony Perkins reprising his iconic role as Norman Bates, also returning is Vera Miles as Lila Loomis, the sister of shower victim Marion Crane. The cast is filled out with Meg Tilly (Body Snatchers) as Norman's co-worker Mary, Robert Loggia (Lost Highway) as Norman's psychiatrist Dr. Raymond and Dennis Franz (Blow Out) playing what he seemed to do best in the 80's, a sleazeball. Perkins snaps right back into the mindset of Norman Bates, it's a scary good performance and he picks it up just fine after 22 years, it's creepy good. Robert Loggia definitely plays against type in a role that's pretty reserved compared to what I know him from, he's a pretty compassionate guy here. Vera Miles reprising her role as Lila Loomis is a nice touch, she's quite upset that after 22 years her sister's murderer is released from the loony bin, it sets her off. Tilly is also quite good as the naive good girl with a twist, I won't spoil it but this is a pretty crafty and deft script, loved the twists and turns, it's a fun 80's slasher with quite a pedigree. 

Alright, a great creative team and a  committed cast, this is starting to sound pretty damn good, and on top of that Richard Franklin and Tom Holland turn out to be quite devoted student of Hitchcock, you can feel his presence in nearly every frame, there's a lot of tense atmosphere and suspense, Holland's script is superb and Franklin's direction is top notch. I think it's probably his best work but I do have quite a soft spot for the kid friendly spy caper Cloak and Dagger (1984), also penned by Holland. 

Watching this again on Blu-ray I think I enjoyed it even more than on previous watches, my appreciation for how Frankilin and Holland were able to channel the Hitchcock vibe so true it would give Brian De Palma cinematic envy, it really works for me on every level. It arrived in cinema's at the end of the slasher-cycle it helped birth, where Hitchcock was more refined in terms of on-screen carnage this one goes right for throat with more gratuitous violence than you might expect and I just loved it from start to finish.

Blu-ray: Psycho II (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and it looks fantastic, way better than my 2007 Universal DVD beginning with a nice layer of fine film grain which offers up some very nice fine detail. The colors are crisp and vibrant, black levels are deep and there's a wonderful clarity which gives the image some depth, was pleasantly surprised how nice Psycho II (1983) looks in 1080p. 

Audio options include English language DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and 5.1, the newly minted 5.1 one is effective with some spatial ambiance even if the surrounds aren't overly active. Dialogue is always clear, effects are clean and Jerry Goldsmith's score sounds great. 

Special features include an Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Tom Holland moderated by Rob Galluzzo, writer/director of the The Psycho Legacy, Holland's a pretty talkative guy and has a lot to offer from the perspective of a young, up and coming writer in Hollywood, mentioning alternate casting choices (Carrie Fisher) and some fun anecdotes about he cast including friction between stars Anthony Perkins and Meg Tilly. Also included is a vintage Universal Electronic Press Kit which is a weird hodgepodge of clips and interviews with the cast including some vintage footage of Hitchcock, a decent time waster. 

Finishing-up the extras are a selection of audio interviews with the cast and crew, trailers, TV Spots and a still image gallery with 81 images of behind-the-scenes pics, production stills, and poster art.  

Special Features: 
- All-new Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Tom Holland
- Vintage interviews with cast and crew including Anthony Perkins and director Richard Franklin (35:21)
- Vintage audio interviews with cast and crew
- TV Spots (2:01)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (3:43) 
- Stills Gallery (6:37) 

Verdict: Sure, a sequel to Psycho (1960) just seems like the worst idea ever but director Richard Franklin and writer Tom Holland handle the material with a lot of respect and with a few fun winks and nods, plus it's a damn fine film on it's own. I quite enjoyed this sequel and Scream Factory's transfer and extras are top notch, you may be a doubter but I strongly suggest a viewing, particularly for you slasher fans, this is fun stuff. 3.5 Outta 5