Psycho Killer

“Psycho Killer” doesn’t have much on its mind and little of substance to say, but it’s an entertaining and exciting-enough genre exercise.

Film Yap is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

---

Gavin Polone’s trajectory in the entertainment industry is an interesting one. He began his career as an agent for International Creative Management and United Talent Agency prior to becoming a producer for film (frequently working with writer/director David Koepp up to and including last week’s “Cold Storage” and overseeing the “Zombieland” franchise) and television (executive producing shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Gilmore Girls”). Polone has now made the leap to directing with his feature debut “Psycho Killer” (now in theaters).

“Psycho Killer” is a lean and mean (it’s a mere 92 minutes) procedural thriller/slasher flick concerning a Kansas highway patrol officer named Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell) who’s hunting down our titular Psycho Killer (James Preston Rogers, he played Hulk Hogan in “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”) after witnessing him murder her husband Mike (Stephen Adekolu).

Psycho Killer is working his way across America on an eastbound trail murdering folks along the way. If he wants drugs he’ll simply kill a pharmacist (Sydney Sabiston) and steal ‘em. If he wants guns or explosives it’s a similar sort of deal. Psycho Killer, an avowed Satanist, receives refuge at a palatial estate belonging to Mr. Pendleton (a very amusing and well-cast Malcolm McDowell). It’s here that he seeks information leading to his endgame from Pendleton’s lackey Marvin (Logan Miller from the “Escape Room” franchise).

“Psycho Killer” has made a weird journey to the silver screen. Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst was attached to direct the picture way back in 2009. Horror helmer Eli Roth was also attached to produce somewhere along the way. The film was shot three years ago and has sat on a shelf prior to being released this weekend. (I’m honestly surprised the 20th Century Studios production didn’t debut on Hulu.) It’s currently rocking a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 31% on the Popcornmeter, but it’s better than that IMHO.

“Psycho Killer” is scripted by Andrew Kevin Walker (he wrote David Fincher’s “Se7en” prior to penning Polone’s producorial debut “8MM”) and it plays like a “Looney Tunes” battle between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner or Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd … only swapping out the daffy for the dour.

Campbell is a good actress who’s made her mark in genre fare (“Barbarian” and the aforementioned “Cold Storage”) and she mostly does solid work here (a late line reading of, “Go to hell, psycho,” left a bad taste in my mouth, but I’d put as much or more of this on Walker for the way it’s written). Rogers is a hulking physical presence and makes for an intimidating antagonist especially as costumed by Natalie Bronfman. I got a big kick out of hearing McDowell bark, “Hail Satan!,” while Pendleton’s Satanism mostly seems like an excuse to do blow or get blown.

I’ll close this review out with some lyrics from the Talking Heads’ tune “Psycho Killer” - “You start a conversation/You can’t even finish it/You’re talking a lot/But you’re not saying anything.”

“Psycho Killer” doesn’t have much on its mind and little of substance to say, but it’s an entertaining and exciting-enough genre exercise featuring a journey that’s worth taking even if the final destination sort of lands with a thud and is attempting to make way for a sequel that’ll never come.