Psycho Goreman (2020) Review

Tagline: He Will Bathe in Your Blood

Psycho Goreman (2020) Review

 

Given a title like Psycho Goreman, you’d probably expect me to use words in this review like “violent”, “gory”, and “insane” to describe it. All those descriptors definitely apply, but here’s one I bet you wouldn’t expect: wholesome. And as far as the quality of the film? Fantastic.

Luke and Mimi are siblings, and Mimi is always overruling Luke. They play a ball game they made up called “Crazy Ball” and it more than lives up to the name. It’s just the kind of complicated, nonsensical game I remember making up as a child. After Luke loses, Mimi forces him to dig his own grave! Okay, that’s a little darker than the consequences my friends and I would invent. Grave digging gets interrupted when they unearth a glowing gem in the backyard, which summons a sadistic extraterrestrial warlord from the planet Gigax. It turns out as long as Mimi wields the gem she can control the nightmarish creature, which she names Psycho Goreman (“or PG, for short”). PG is forced to hang out with them instead of destroy the entire galaxy like he intends, but a council of aliens intends to locate him and annihilate him once and for all.

Psycho Goreman is just the kind of cheesy sci-fi/horror/comedy that I love. I have no idea what year it’s supposed to be set in, but it definitely has 80’s vibes, despite the kids playing a Nintendo 64 at one point and their dad’s new TV being a flat screen. The special effects are mostly old school (monster suits, puppets, elaborate makeup, even a bit of stop motion), which I enjoyed immensely. There are some unrefined computer generated effects throughout which look like advanced YouTuber quality, but they don’t detract too much from the overall aesthetic or enjoyability. The whole thing is evidently low-budget and a little uneven, but it overcomes those limitations with fun concepts, great character moments, and a particular brand of humour.

PG himself is an awesome character. He reminded me of a Cenobite from Hellraiser mixed with the villain Krall played by Idris Elba in Star Trek Beyond, with a little bit of Captain Holt energy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He has an epic voice, and so many incredible lines of dialogue, some of which are bone chilling, and some are straight-up hilarious. The design for PG is great, too, and the filmmakers were smart enough to know how to utilize him for maximum entertainment value. All other character designs are cool too, or funny, or both. The council of aliens is charming and hysterical, and just wouldn’t have had the same effect if done in cgi or with higher quality practical effects. The little girl Mimi could make or break the movie for some. She’s such an over-the-top brat I couldn’t decide if I loved how much I hated her or hated how much I loved her. She delivers every line with gusto and some of the things she says are truly outrageous, but it gets to be a bit much after a while. Her dad, though, is incredible and hilarious, for reasons I can’t even fully explain.  

Often when a movie features extreme special effects, they are shown with short, precise shots or specific angles, but rarely does the camera linger on them. Psycho Goreman doesn’t shy away from giving the special effects plenty of screen time. An example is when a cop gets his arms and face melted and messed up by PG, but he doesn’t die, he sticks with the trio. Moments like these feel like they go against the norm for the genre in the sense of holding focus on those effects, which I really appreciated. A great comparison is to the guy who gets melted by toxic waste in the original Robocop. He’s all goopy and gross, and we see it for only a few seconds before he gets hit by a car and splatters all over the car’s windshield. Melty cop staggers through multiple scenes, with great close-ups and hilarious moments.

In many ways, it’s a sendup of genre conventions, and the more you're into the kinds of movies it’s sending up the more you’ll enjoy it. It’s R-rated and chocked full of brutal violence and gore, but isn’t plagued with excessive swearing for the sake of being outrageous, and I actually found that refreshing. The kids don’t swear (their repeated use of “frig off” is much funnier than if they had actually sworn) which I appreciated; it adds to that oddly wholesome energy. How could a movie be so wholesome and comedic while featuring a monster who considers it honourable to devour his defeated enemies (which we get to witness)? It’s an impressive accomplishment. You just have to see it to fully comprehend it. 

Psycho Goreman has all the makings of a cult classic, and I hope the right audiences continue to find it. If you subscribe to the horror streaming service Shudder, you can find it there, or on blu ray or VOD. If you do give it a watch, be sure to stay for the hilarious mid-credits scene.