YMMV / Psycho III

• Captain Obvious Reveal: Duane Duke being Evil All Along and a Big Bad Wannabe came as an obvious reveal to everyone since his villainy was not hidden at all.
• Catharsis Factor: Duane Duke's Karmic Death.
• Heartwarming Moments: Norman and Maureen's romance. After crossing the Despair Event Horizon, Maureen attempts to kill herself at the Bates Motel, but Norman rescues her and is able to prevent "Mother" from ever coming near her. After learning about Norman's feelings for her, Maureen begins warming up to him and is one of the few girls to actually have a good date with him. She's one of the few women who brings the good out of Norman, never encountering "Mother" at all. Despite all the hell occurring in the story, she still sees a good person in Norman and hopes to save his soul. And she almost does.
• Memetic Mutation: "THERE IS NO GOD!!!" has appeared on several albums, especially Negativland.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Norman killing Duke. Twice as cathartic for the fact that Duke drowns to death in his own crappy car while Norman easily swims out of the swamp.
  • Norman finally standing up to "Mother".
• Narm:
  • Norman thinking his mother is laughing at him — because a Woody Woodpecker cartoon is on.
    Norman: DON'T LAUGH AT ME.

• Nausea Fuel: Duane Duke kissing Emma Spool's corpse and Norma kissing Patsy's. Particularly how completely out of the blue it is—he had barely any interaction with her when she was alive, so there's no previous attraction to explain his actions.
• Sequelitis:
  • Common consensus seems to be that Psycho III is visually interesting but flawed and lacking in depth, especially as compared to the first two installments.
• So Okay, It's Average:
  • Psycho III is not as good as the first two films, but it's surprisingly entertaining on its own.
• Tearjerker:
  • Maureen accidentally killing a nun as a noviate.
    Nun: (screaming in her ear) You'll burn in Hell for this! You'll burn in hell!
  • Apart from his mother's domination inside his brain which forces him to kill most of the women he is attracted to, Norman gets quite a big amount of bad luck with them, be it the chain of reactions leading to the death of Maureen.
  • Norman and Maureen's breakup. The first good relationship Norman's ever had with a girl and she leaves him.
  • Maureen's death. After realizing her feelings for Norman, she returns to him in order to save his soul and start a normal life with him. Only for her to accidentally fall down the stairs and be impaled on a statue of Cupid's arrow. She was the first woman to make a break through with Norman and she sadly dies completely by accident. Norman's cries only make it all the more harsher as he yells for his girlfriend to be okay.
    • Topped off by Norman's agonized howl, "MOOOOOTHERRRR!!!"
    • Norman putting dead Maureen on the couch, surrounded by candles as a makeshift shrine to her.
  • Similarly, "Maureen in the Desert".
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Pretty much the big reason why Psycho III is divisive among fans was because of how depressing the tone was.
• Vindicated by History: Psycho III was not well-liked upon release (though Roger Ebert did praise it). Fan opinion shifted as the years went on, with viewers noting that it isn't as bad as most horror movie sequels and even contains some genuinely good moments.

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