Something that’s made a come-back in recent years is the 80’s retro-style horror-comedy. Psycho Goreman can be lazily described as ET meets Guyver by way of Masters of the Universe, but with lots more blood. It’s a silly movie crammed with some ridiculous lines and some fantastic practical effects that at no point stops to take itself seriously. It’s the sort of film that opens with a scrolling intro that only really exists to warn the viewer that things are going to start weird and get even stranger.
The whole feature is packed with some great nods to pop culture, but without it getting away of the fun. Plot wise, its complete nonsense. We open with brother and sister Luke and Mimi accidentally uncover an ancient evil from the ‘Planet Gigax’. Mimi then discovers that she has total control of an outlandishly powerful alien being that exists only to murder and conquer. Mimi immediately puts this nightmare creature to work as her new best friend yet treats him terribly as she does so. She also renames him to Psycho Goreman (PG for short), not because of the bodies it leaves in its path, but because that’s a cool name.
Mimi and a reluctant Luke make PG part of their family, leading to some hellish and hilarious sit-com style moments. Each scene drips with imagination and world-building whilst at the same time being a very straight forward (and very silly) story. The creature design is brilliant, each beastie looks like they’ve come from some twisted Saturday morning cartoon, and they plenty of weird aliens to watch out for in this movie. It features a monster that’s just a bin full of blood and bones on legs for example. The attention to detail is fantastic and the comedy is a nice mix of outrageous dialogue and slapstick.
In addition to the special effects being a perfect blend of 80’s style and modern production standards, the pacing, acting and overall design is exactly what it needs to be for a movie like this.
Psycho Goreman is unlikely to win any Oscars (unless something has gone horribly wrong with the Academy) but it’s amazing fun from beginning to end. If you like low budget, superbly made and very silly horror comedy (and don’t mind buckets of gore) this one is for you. Brilliant, bloody and buckets of fun.
Release Date: January 22nd (US)
