"Psycho II" was generally received well by the public and critics and was a surprise box office success. However, film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both gave the film thumbs down on "At the Movies", specifically for its failure to live up to the original. "I think the ghost of the original," said Siskel, "obviously hangs over this movie, and it's too bad because it's a nicely made picture." Ebert wrote of the film: "If you've seen "Psycho" a dozen times and can recite the shots in the shower scene by heart, "Psycho II" is just not going to do it for you. But if you can accept this 1983 movie on its own terms, as a fresh start, and put your memories of Hitchcock on hold, then "Psycho II" begins to work. It's too heavy on plot and too willing to cheat about its plot to be really successful, but it does have its moments, and it's better than your average, run-of-the-mill slasher movie." In the British magazine "Empire", film critic Kim Newman gave the film three out of five stars, calling "Psycho II" "a smart, darkly-comic thriller with some imaginative twists", writing " The wittiest dark joke is that the entire world "wants" Norman to be mad, and ‘normality’ can only be restored if he’s got a mummified mother in the window and is ready to kill again."