Psycho II (film) - Production

Production

Psycho II was filmed at Universal Studios in Universal City, California on Stage 24 from June 30, 1982 to August 1982. The Bates house set was still standing from 1960, but the motel had to be reconstructed. According to Richard Franklin, filming lasted 32 days. The film was made much like the first film, it was mostly shot on the backlot of Universal and in a number of sound stages. Several props and set pieces from the original film were found by set designers John W. Corso and Julie Fletcher. The town of Fairvale (seen when Lila Loomis is tailed by Dr. Raymond) is actually Courthouse Square, which is located on the Universal Studios backlot in California.

Both Franklin and Holland wanted the film to be a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock and the original film, to accomplish this, they added in various in jokes such as the scene when Mary and Norman first go into Norman's mother's room, before they turn the lights on, you can see Alfred Hitchcock's silhouette on the wall to the far right. Franklin also repeated various shots from the original film such as the shot where Norman walks into the kitchen and sets his jacket down on the chair. Anthony Perkins had difficulty working with actress Meg Tilly due to Tilly never seeing the original film and not being aware of the significance of Perkins' comeback role. Midway through production, Perkins suggested that Tilly be replaced even though half of her scenes had been shot. The ending of the film was kept secret during production. The final pages of the shooting script with the ending on it weren't distributed to cast and crew until the last day of filming.

The iconic last shot of the movie with Norman standing in front of the house was used as a Christmas card for various crew members. When Universal presented concept art for the one sheet film poster, director Franklin wasn't pleased with it. It was editor Andrew London who came up with the idea of using the Christmas card photo as the film poster and also came up with the famous tagline: "It's 22 years later and Norman Bates is coming home".