Zane's take at the Cinema's

Original horror movies will always get a stamp of approval from my side of the aisle no matter what. They’re not always going to turn out great, but in an era where original movies don’t get the attention that they deserve from time to time, original horror should never be taken for granted. Psycho Killer, while not heavily promoted, had a ton of potential based on the one teaser that got released and some killer posters that have been coming out over the last week. Now having seen the movie, it kind of makes sense why Disney didn’t shove the marketing in our faces for this movie (because it’s trash), but simply from how the posters looked, they crushed it.

Gavin Polone, who’s only known for being a producer on films (8mm, Panic Room and Zombieland), makes his feature directorial debut with Psycho Killer, and it really shows that just because you’re a producer that doesn’t mean you’re ready nor do you have what it takes to direct a movie. There were zero reviews or any kind of social media responses the day the movie was set to hit theaters this weekend, and as much as it pains me to admit this, it’s sad to say that Psycho Killer should have been shelved from the very beginning. Psycho Killer is a directionless and delirious slasher film that felt scared to take the gloves off and go for something bolder and audacious. Instead, it imitates movies of its own genre on an embarrassing note; it only scratches at a surface level with its concept and maybe the worst thing of all is that it’s the most tame slasher flick of recent memory.

One of the biggest problems with Psycho Killer hinges on its overall story. Its main focus is centered on Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell), a police officer whose very mission is to track down the serial killer “the Satanic Slasher” (James Preston Rogers) after he murders her husband right in front of her while both are on duty. So right there, you have this cat-and-mouse game angle that has been used a lot in slasher movies but can always work with the right intent. This is really where the movie needed a vast rewrite because the movie shifts back and forth constantly to Jane’s perspective and then the Satanic Slasher’s perspective. The result of this became a jumbled nightmare because the movie continued to lose its core identity every time it did this.

Another issue with Psycho Killer comes down to the performances. Georgina Campbell, who’s still at the early stages of her career, is a very likable actress and does her best with the material given to her but this was a slog for her to get through. Even with the inciting incident with her character at the beginning of the movie, it never gives you a moment to get connected with her character because the movie rushes so fast to shift between her and the Slasher that you really have no time to get invested. And in the case of the Slasher, this had the ripe of an iconic horror villain. Unfortunately, his performance is incredibly lackluster. He looks cool; the mask is intimidating and you can see the idea behind what the filmmakers were going for with this huge and very monstrous serial killer. However, this is an instance where the performance feels more like a vibe than anything else. Sure, it’s violent to a degree, but it ultimately feels tamed down, so it’s hard to even find this character interesting at all. And for a movie that’s steeped in the ideas of Satanism, it never expands on those ideas even remotely. Even a movie like Longlegs, which is not a movie for everybody, was a better examination of devil worship, demonic possession, and satanic, ritualistic violence. Psycho Killer just gives you blood and guts, but there’s zero impact.

The one thing that Psycho Killer does succeed at doing well was how it was shot and it’s visual aesthetic direction. It looked good, the grimness and coloring evoke the feeling you’d get if you were to watch a slasher film from the late 90s or 2000s. But the rest of the movie is littered with awful writing, unrealistic and stupid character decision making and perhaps the worst thing of all is that the song “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads was no where to be found.