Review: Psycho Goreman

For those too young to remember, the 80’s were a GREAT time for movies!  Star Wars, John Hughes Comedies, and purposefully cheesy, cartoonishly bloody Horror films ruled the day.  Psycho Goreman is a throwback to low budget, campy 80’s gore in all the right ways! This is the Psycho Goreman review!

The Plot – Psycho Goreman

Like lots of great cheesy movies, Psycho Goreman starts with a scrawl.  A nameless evil alien from outer space, yadda yadda, great power, yadda yadda, he was eventually defeated and buried on Earth.

Luke and Mimi are school-aged brother and sister who still love to playing in the backyard together.  Older brother Luke is sensitive and cautious.  Younger sister Mimi is a Tom-Boy who isn’t afraid to boss her meek and passive brother around.

Together they play ‘Crazy Ball’, their own highly confusing version of Dodge Ball, where the Winner is ‘Champion Of The Universe’, and the loser gets buried alive!  Luke, of course, losses, and has to dig his own grave.  Luke digs so long and deep, it’s dark out, and he hits something really hard.

Luke and Mimi find a coffin with glowing red gem!  Mimi grabs the gem, the coffin starts shaking and making noise, so they panic and quickly try to re-bury it, before being called in at bed time.

Moments later, our nameless evil alien finds three low level criminals at an abandoned factory, and, with barely a flick of the claw, magically decapitates two them, and zombifies the third!  How E-V-I-L!!!

The next night, Luke and Mimi stumble upon the alien.  Luke is about to be killed, when Mimi orders him to stop!  Then, she orders him to run in place.  THEN, she orders him sit quietly until morning.  The glowing red “Gem Of Peraxadyke’ controls his every move!  Mimi and Luke name their nameless, purple evil being ‘Psycho Goreman’!

The Good

Psycho Goreman Director Steven Kostanski goes FULL 80’s his filmmaking for the perfect 80’s Comedy/Horror throwback.  Real, physical costumes for the creatures, NOT CGI.  Matte paintings for set extensions.  Stop motion animation, models and miniatures, and even well lit sets take you back. 

The old school filmmaking isn’t just for show.  It looks so much better than the CGI we have now, and really puts you into the story.  The analog corn syrup blood just FEELS more real than digital CGI blood of a Jason Blum, Blum House modern flick. 

Matthew Ninaber and Steven Vlahos combine for the physical and vocal performance of Psycho Goreman in a scary, yet hilarious presence.  Nita-Josee Hanna as Mimi and Owen Myre as Luke are totally believable as brother and sister.  And the three characters together are ‘freaking’ hilarious together.

As we visit PG’s home planet of Gigax, a huge menagerie of aliens debate how to deal with Psycho Goreman and the people of Earth.  Snake people, a skull/brain with eyes in a glass helmet, and an all-white cyborg with wings plan their attack. 

Director Steven Kostanski is also credited as Creative Effects Designer.  This includes Luke’s friend being turned into a giant brain with eyes and tentacles.  Cheesy, but gounded special effects beat expensive CGI any day!

This film is so 80’s we even have not one, but two montages.  We see PG playing in a Rock Band with the kids, and even clothes shopping to keep up with the latest 80’s fashions.

The Bad

If there is a singular weak point in Psycho Goreman, it is a verbal fight between Luke and Mimi’s parents at the start of the Third Act.

The fight is necessary to set up everything heading towards the end of the film, but the tone is off, inconsistent with the rest of the flick.  Both parents are OK with an evil alien from outer space hanging out with their kids, but have a serious dramatic fight over a lazy husband??!! 

Yes, the Director sets it up earlier, but the tone is all wrong in the scene.  It’s the lone off key note in the whole Comedy/Horror symphony.

The Review – Psycho Goreman

Psycho Goreman is Gremlins meets Hocus Pocus meets Stan Winston’s monsters meets Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

This film doesn’t take itself seriously, and has TONS of fun along the way.  What other movie has a GIANT brain with eyeballs, a disembodied head giving driving instructions, and an undead corpse kept alive with a single rose for it’s heart?

For a good laugh, and a bloody, bloody walk down memory lane, check out Psycho Goreman!

Rated PG-13, 95 minutes. Psycho Goreman movie review.

Additional Information

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11252440/