If I have to be honest, Norman was totally justified here.The original Psycho is one of my favorite movies ever, and I have a weird appreciation for the Gus Van Sant remake, but I, for whatever reason, had been avoiding the direct sequels. It goes without saying that Psycho 2 isn't as good as the original, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much this worked for me.
Anthony Perkins was still perfect in this role. He already added a level of sympathy in the original, and here, he uses that sympathy to create a pretty devastating performance. He's just as good in this movie as in the first film, and he's able to carry so much plot and emotional weight.
The central relationship between Norman and Mary was strong, and the way they handled it, while admittedly a stretch, adds so much emotional depth to this movie. We want to see Norman get better, but everything around him keeps pulling him down. This makes it easily one of the saddest horror movies I've seen.
The composition in this movie added a lot of tension to the movie, with some great angles and lighting to evoke similar feelings to the original film while still doing their own thing.
Ultimately, that's something I appreciated about this movie. While it does the somewhat annoying thing of recalling a previous shot or scene from the original, it uses the base character to tell their own story.
I hope 3 and 4 are just as fun, at least.