Dir. Steven Kostanski (2020)
Two children discover an ancient evil who is destined to be the end of all life in the universe. Unfortunately for him, he is subject to the control of whoever finds him.
CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
I watched Psycho Goreman about a year ago after hearing about it for months, and to be honest, I was heavily disappointed. I don’t know if I had just overhyped it or if I was in a bad mood… who knows. I felt that the little girl was annoying, the dad was overly dumb to the point that it was almost offensive, and it just didn’t have enough to overcome those two large deficits. However,- I wanted to give it another shot since I needed to get a review up for it anyway, and since it just won the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Limited-Release Movie, I figured it was time.
On second watch, the little girl is still very annoying. I get that her character is supposed to be an “annoying” little girl, but she’s almost unbearably annoying. However, her interactions with PG are carried well into entertainment-land purely because PG is hilarious as a foil. The dad is still obnoxiously dumb, but is more humorous than I had initially felt that he was. The film hits where its supposed to hit, and for a small film with a limited release you honestly can’t ask for anything more. Though it did at times feel like a super-large budget adults-only version of Power Rangers, I think that was also kinda the point. Plus, Rita Repulsa ain’t got nothing on Pandora. The one thing that I do heavily criticized is that the little girl was needlessly cruel at times, and had gone beyond just the standard annoying little sister. She at times went past being a bratty little girl and ended up squarely in Bitchville. It does seem wrong calling a little girl a bitch, but c’est la vie. She is, and she is kinda tyrannical in the way that little girls can often be, but the other kid was a much better character as a whole.
And when the giant disembodied brain is a less annoying character than the main character, that is a strike against the film.
The film is tightly paced, relatively funny (and outright funny at times), and the gore is fantastic. I repeat, the gore is fantastic, and that’s why you should be watching this movie anyway. It’s fun, it’s quick, and it’s got the best creature design I’ve seen in years. The many characters throughout the galaxy give a lot of freedom in creating many different designs, and each one is unique and interesting. I highly anticipate there being a sequel, and I think that, with a little bit of growth in the characters, the sequel could be an even better film.
This one is pretty rad, though.
There’s so much that can be done with the world that has been built here, though. The characters are awesome, the whole Gigax thing could be amazing in a followup movie. If the sequel just told stories from PG’s past and left out the humans but kept the humor intact, it could be an infinitely watchable film. Here’s hoping that the producers decide to make another movie that fully explores the Psycho Goreman universe, humans or no humans.
Who this movie is for: Gorehounds with a sense of humor, Special effects fans, People who hate little girls as much as I do
Bottom line: Psycho Goreman is a lot of fun and has some of the best gore I’ve seen in a while, especially from an indie film with limited distro. It’s genuinely funny at parts, but a couple of the characters are pretty annoying. The annoying characters are far outweighed by the better parts of the film, though. I know this film is universally beloved, but if you for some reason didn’t love it, I would definitely try it again with fewer expectations because it really is a fantastic little movie. It’s dumb at times, and there were some choices that I would not have made, but it’s a fun movie that checks all the boxes for what it intends to be.
