Review: Psycho Goreman (2020)
Directed by: Steven Kostanski
Starring: Matthew Ninaber, Nita-Josee Hanna, Kristen MacCulloch
Written by: Steven Kostanski
Music by: Blitz//Berlin
Country: Canada
Available on: Blu-ray (Image Entertainment), DVD (Acorn Media), VHS (Witter Entertainment)
IMDb
When Psycho Goreman was first announced and the trailer dropped, it seemed like it would be impossible for the final film to live up to the ridiculous amounts of bloody fun promised in that minute and twenty seconds. But, thank the Gigaxian gods, the movie is a great time. It follows young human siblings Mimi and Luke, who accidentally release a bloodthirsty, planet-conquering demigod. He intends to pick right back up his bloodthirsty conquering, but it turns out he now must obey Mimi, who’s tiny but very domineering. Meanwhile, his enemies across the galaxy have been alerted to his awakening and are now on the hunt. The movie is founded on a single comedic setup: that two human kids couldn’t give any fewer shits about Psycho Goreman’s (PG, for short) omnipotent dark lord schtick. But the setup works really well, and there are frequent legitimately funny moments as PG waxes evilly about his adventures as the archduke of nightmares and no one around him is paying any attention to his bullshit. There are times when the punchline seems to be waning in potency, but writer/director Steven Kostanski (one-half of the filmmaking duo behind The Void from 2016) avoids overstaying his welcome by timing well the interludes featuring over-the-top kills and battle set-pieces that play out like a Troma-warped MCU climax. But the tone of the movie never strays too far from humor, and there is absurdity abounds (the “hunky boys” throughline, for example). The budget is limited, and while there are a lot of fantastic practical effects, there is also plentiful and not remotely realistic CG; however, I think for the most part it all works together to support the pseudo-anime vibe. Additionally, there are some great musical moments, including an original synth pop song written by Mimi and Luke that backs an amusing montage of PG acclimating to life on earth, some hair metal arena anthems that power the fight scenes, and an end-credits rap song resurrected from the ashes of every ‘80s franchise horror movie. Psycho Goreman straddles a fine balance between fish-out-of-water family comedy with sci-fi overtones (think Suburban Commando, which seems like a major influence here) and an ultra-violent horror movie. But like another movie that aims for that sweet spot, 2015’s Turbo Kid, this movie has a lot of heart at its core and never loses sight of the fun. No doubt this is going to be a divisive movie, though — its cartoonish kineticism is likely to draw the intense ire of some horror fans, and Mimi is damn irritating for most of the runtime. I could quibble that the gore could have been notched up even further and the script could have done more to sand down the edges of Mimi’s personality, but Psycho Goreman is mostly a very enjoyable success.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10