Arrow 4K Ultra HD Film Review

‘The Psycho Collection’ (1960–1990) • Limited Edition Blu-ray [Arrow Video]

Arrow Video’s extensive 4K Ultra HD box-set brings together Alfred Hitchcock’s original Psycho and its three sequels…

Almost a quarter of a century passed between Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and the first of the three sequels it spawned; an exceptionally long gap only occasionally outdone by films like Coming 2 America (2021, 33 years later) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022, 36 years later). Indeed, Hitchcock’s own The Birds (1963) also didn’t receive a TV movie follow-up until 31 years later, with The Birds II: Land’s End (1994).

It would be nice to think this derived from an unwillingness to add anything to the near-perfect original, but what’s more likely is that Psycho leaves nowhere obvious for a sequel to go. Its central character Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is presumably facing lifelong confinement in a secure psychiatric institution, the secret of his mother has been revealed, and all the other characters are either dead or not particularly interesting.