PG: Psycho Goreman

PG: Psycho Goreman (2021)

Directed by Steven Kostanski

This is the first new movie of 2021, and I’m so happy that we started with something that is so totally within my wheelhouse. I’ve already covered one of the previous movies from this director, it’s called The Void and you should check it out, so I was pretty confident that I was going to enjoy this as long as it stuck to the same themes and tone of his earlier work. Going in, I knew that Psycho Goreman was supposed to be more of a horror-comedy than a straight horror movie and that gave me a little pause because I generally find horror-comedies hit or miss. That was one of the most foolish thoughts I’ve ever had, because I will be shocked if this movie does not at least end up in my top 5 movies for the entirety of this year. I recommend this movie so much that I’m putting in the opening paragraph. If you’re interested in a bit more of what the movie is actually about or why I think it’s good, then by all means, please keep reading.

Our Story Begins!

After a rousing game of Crazy-Ball, siblings Luke, the straight-laced and responsible one, and Mimi, the budding sociopath, discover an alien gem embedded deep within the Earth. Removing it, the two children release an ancient evil being that was imprisoned on Earth by a council of powerful aliens. The ancient evil is eager to return to his ways of pillage, plunder, and murder, but finds himself in an unexpected predicament when he realizes that Mimi and Luke have the gem that powers him – and grants control of him. Beholden to the bizarre, comedic, and sometimes quite violent, whims of Mimi. The ancient evil being, named Psycho Goreman by the children, has to figure out how to free himself from Mimi’s control before the people who imprisoned him realize he’s woken up and come back to finish what they started.

A Chance For Me To Talk About Power Rangers? Nice.

If it isn’t already obvious, Psycho Goreman is a gleeful parody of a smorgasbord of children’s entertainment, taking well-worn tropes and giving them an absurd, violent, and absurdly violent twist. What kept coming to mind when I watched this was Power Rangers, a franchise I was absolutely obsessed with as a child which shaped me into who I am now. So much of this movie reminds me of that show, from the bizarre monsters (which are of course people in monster suits) having martial arts-style battles, to the epic lore that gets largely ignored, to the absolutely insane plot developments that keep popping up one after another. Power Rangers was colorful nonsense and Psycho Goreman is on that exact same wavelength, and I could not be more down for what it ended up being.

PG Is Out There, In The Best Way.

I love Psycho Goreman probably more than I should, but I make no apologies for it. From scene one I was howling with laughter and the only times I stopped laughing was when I was staring in awe at the amazing practical gore effects. The effects in general were great, I love all the monster designs and I appreciate how they’re all real costumes or puppets that have a lot of imagination. But to single out the gore effects, they were everything I wanted. There are The Toxic Avenger levels of violence in Psycho Goreman and it is perfectly in line with the type of parody this is. Like all great horror-comedies, the comedy (the jokes and parody) and the horror (the actually disturbing violence and deaths) aren’t separate, they’re linked by the glorious absurdity that pervades the whole film.

These Characters Are Weird, Vile, And Kind Of Endearing.

The special effects are great, but what makes this movie work are the characters, which exist as amped-up versions of the classic family dynamic stereotypes in fiction like this. There’s the comically lazy father, the serious and put upon mother, the straight-laced weenie Luke, and Mimi, who I mentioned at the beginning of this is a budding sociopath. That wasn’t a joke. Mimi is a violent, combative, disturbed child, and I love her for it. She is so aggressively weird and creepy and nasty that I want an entire series dedicated to her wacky horrific misadventures. Part of what makes this work is the way she’s written, but I give a lot of credit to the actress Nita-Josee Hanna who is clearly having a blast and it shows in every shot and every line. Nearly all the performances here are good, actually, which does help give Psycho Goreman some charm.

Sometimes The Polish Is Lacking, But That Never Bothered Me Too Much.

I don’t think there are many noticeable flaws in this movie, but there are a couple issues that pop up here and there. This is a lower-budgeted movie, and even though there are a lot of impressive prosthetics and monster costumes, in some moments the cheapness does shine through and you are reminded that this is a person in a costume, particularly in the action sequences. That’s nothing too severe though, it’s a problem that’s more a ding on a damn fine movie than it is something that wrecked the experience for me. I did have a ton of fun with Psycho Goreman, I love the characters, love the body horror, love the insane levels of violence and irreverence, and I love how good of a time this movie has doing all of this. This is pure unapologetic fun, and it was exactly what I needed right now. If this sounds like a movie you may enjoy, I’d strongly suggest watching it.

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