‘Psycho Killer’ Review: A Hilarious Affront to Slasher Filmmaking

Psycho Killer is, without a doubt, one of the worst films of the decade so far, as it treats its audience like complete and utter morons whilst subjecting them to some of the most incoherent horror fanfare I’ve seen in quite some time. 

This review contains spoilers for Psycho Killer.

Psycho Killer follows a Kansas Highway Patrol Officer named Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell), whose husband (Stephen Adeklou) was murdered during a routine traffic stop by somebody known by many names, the Interstate Killer, the Satanic Slasher, or, as the film’s title refers to him: Psycho Killer (James Preston Rogers). Officer Archer stews in her grief for about four days before deciding against her father’s wishes (Nigel Shawn Williams) to track down the maniac and end his killing spree once and for all.

On paper, Psycho Killer has all the components to make an enjoyable slasher; Andrew Kevin Walker wrote it for starters, who wrote Se7en, arguably the best cat & mouse serial killer film of all time. Not only is the script written by somebody capable of excellence, but the cast has great actors like Malcolm McDowell, and the film is produced by Roy Lee & Arnon Milchan, who’ve produced great genre films. 

So one must ask, if so many people who’ve been behind iconic films made this, why is it such a failure? Psycho Killer ultimately commits the cardinal sin of cinema: it’s boring. Not only is it boring, but its attempts to show grief and get the audience to be on the edge of their seats are utterly laughable. As soon as we are introduced to the titular Psycho Killer, he speaks. In fact, he speaks just as much as our protagonist. It’s not that I have a problem with horror villains speaking, I mean, literally, Aunt Gladys was the standout of last year’s Weapons. It’s that director Gavin Polone and those involved with making this film decided to use what can only be described as an Xbox 360 voice-altering headset microphone to overlay every line spoken by James Preston Rogers. Due to the poor voice modification, whenever the villain is delivering satanic dialogue that is supposed to be terrifying, it evokes the same feeling as watching a YouTube video about a guy pranking people on Call of Duty with a Glenn Quagmire impression.

To put it more bluntly, it becomes absolutely impossible to take any sequence with Rogers in it seriously, as I was struggling to contain my laughter throughout the film. At times, with how ridiculous the vocal performance and kills are, I was genuinely wondering if Polone and Walker were trying to be funny. The Psycho Killer murders a sex cult of satanists run by Malcolm McDowell. There is also a sequence where the Psycho Killer finds a couple stopped on the side of the road, as the boyfriend is urinating, his face is demolished by the serial killer, the girlfriend, rightfully terrified, takes off, and gets followed, only for her to cause a semi-truck to flip over and run her over, then explodes. The hilarious sequences continue as Officer Archer’s plight to get revenge on her husband’s killer leads her to uncover that the Psycho Killer plans to take control of a nuclear power plant, and cause the core to melt, nuking the entire East Coast of the United States. What once was a cat-and-mouse story quickly devolves into a race against time to stop a nuclear holocaust.

Unfortunately, the first two months of the year have been extremely poor for horror, and Psycho Killer continues that trend. Yes, we’ve gotten two great genre films in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple & Sam Raimi’s Send Help, but the overwhelming majority have not been pretty. Psycho Killer is laughable and lazy, as it tries to act like the satanic panic of the 1980s is still around, whilst using an overwhelming amount of CGI blood, and having numerous performances that all feel like they are in different films; nothing feels coherent from the story to the filmmaking, as each sequence is done with so much seriousness that it becomes ridiculous. I finally understand why Disney & 20th Century Studios released only one eighty-second trailer to promote this film and nothing more, because it’s abysmal. 

Psycho Killer was directed by Gavin Pollone and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The film stars Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Logan Miller, Grace Dove, Nigel Shawn Williams, Stephen Adeklou, and Malcolm McDowell. 

Psycho Killer was released in theaters on February 20 by 20th Century Studios. 

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