Delirio

PSYCHO PUPPET is certainly trying to be something though just what that is remains unclear. Today the film is best known for something other than any of its attributes -- It was infamously included on the list of "Video Nasty" films banned in the UK in the early 1980s. Looking at it now one wonders what all the fuss was about, or if the people who issued the verdict against it even watched the damn movie.

The premise is not without interest: Vietnam vets pre-programmed to kill are recruited as part of a Star Chamber like urban vigilante squad passing judgment on the criminals slipping through the cracks of the criminal justice system. The murdered criminals are passed off as suicides with nobody any the wiser, until one of the vets flips out and goes on a general killing spree.

Its here that the Brits found their problem as the Psycho Puppet of question takes off after exclusively buxom blond bombshells who obediently strip right down for the camera. The film is sleazy, voyeuristic, tacky, cheaply made, with dialog that makes a Sears catalog sound smooth. The sexualized nature of the killing scenes is completely out of proportion to anything else in the film, and exist only to provide a lurid thrill. There is nothing to be learned from the story and no profound thought is advanced by its telling.

And yet there is something compelling about this inept, nasty little movie. Mostly offbeat locations & some bizarre casting choices, showing us an underside of St. Louis that is highly unflattering. The film exists in an uneasy juxtaposition between a tacky disco culture and a run down dilapidated post-industrial urban ruin that has no aspiration to glamor or sophistication. Its late 1970s polyesterized look makes the film look unhealthy, like it needs to get some sunlight & start eating more fresh vegetables. It looks scuzzy.

Standout role is the weird bald guy, a twisted Vietnam vet with a mad hatter's view of American justice. He's a great villain while the film allows him to be one but sadly everything falls apart in the last fifteen minutes leading to a protracted gunfight that undoes any originality that came before it. The film I kept thinking about while watching it was the first Dirty Harry sequel MAGNUM FORCE, which also featured a post-industrial urban wasteland in its climax with nihilistic violence mixed with lurid exploitation.

The main difference being that PSYCHO PUPPET wasn't made with any artfulness or sense of craft and exists only as a bleak reminder of how stupid people can be when they get into positions of power. Whoever banned this movie from Britain obviously never saw it since there's very little to get worked up about in it. Those seeking it out for a joyride of vicarious thrills will be disappointed and anyone looking for a message will come up empty. It's a curious, cold, cruel little movie, existing as a footnote. Which may sound pretty dismal, but its a pretty dismal movie and at least it'll remembered for something.

5/10

Cops vs ex-military vigilantes who enlist the services of a Viet Nam vet who runs amok. Very pedestrian all around. Minimal blood, and the violent encounters are filmed as clumsily and distactingly unconvincing as anything I've seen in such cheapos. Least nasty of the infamous Video Nasties I've seen. That it ended up banned in Britain is a testament to overwrought censorship run amok.

This just didn't do anything for me. The print I watched was crap so that didn't help, but, its mostly just scenes of police talking, with some fairly brutal murders thrown in between. It takes a turn at about the hour mark, but, by then I was so zoned out I didn't give a crap. There's also some attempts at nudity, but, it's not gratuitous in any way. Just goes to show you why in many ways the whole UK video nasties scare was ridiculous.

There's not much to recommend about this Video Nasty except for the storyline, the premise of which should have resulted in a much better movie, and the acting, though they are wasted in this travesty.

This is the story of a secret society sick with the depravity on the streets of their neighbourhood so they hire a Vietnam Veteran to help clean up their streets... the trouble is he's suffering from shell-shock and starts to any and everyone.

This in itself could have given the audience a bloodfest to remember. However, the director, Peter Maris, opts for a slow pace. Which might have worked well to build tension if there had been a torture scene, which there isn't (another missed opportunity), but hinders the film since it's used throughout its runtime. The slowness of the film is made up of boring and pointless scenes that, though, well acted (compared to everything else), are badly directed. There needed to be more action sequences especially concerning the Vet's breakdown.

There're too many flashbacks to Vietnam. The director is so lazy he just cut in loads of stock footage; this adds to the lackadaisical feel of the direction and hinders the film and frustrates the viewer.

I would only recommend this to anyone who is watching the video nasty list to see why some of the listed films were banned (this one was banned because they thought some people may be prone to copy the actions of the Vet). However, be prepared to keep hitting the rewind button every time you wake up because this film has the power to induce sleep.

Man, you gotta love the swinging 70's! The villain of this movie goes to a "job interview" and manages (despite being very creepy-looking and apparently mute) to pick up a secretary, who takes him back to her place for sex, but after he proves impotent he stabs her to death. He then steals a car and picks up a leggy, hot-pants clad female hitch-hiker, but even after he nearly kills them both driving like a maniac, they still end up going skinny-dipping together and he strangles her in the surf. He next meets a young farm girl, but even though he is trespassing on her property, she is more interested in flirting with him than calling the police, and she gets a pitchfork in the neck for her troubles. Then he actually goes into a house where a woman is taking a bath, and he probably would have done great with her too, but he kind of blows it by taking a butcher knife to her delivery boy. The investigating officer meanwhile seems far more interested in making dates with the pretty roommate of the first victim than he is in solving the case. Fortunately, the girl whose case he IS trying to crack is still working as a secretary at the office where the killer had his "interview" and she stumbles upon a connection between this out-of-control "psycho puppet", her boss, and shadowy organization of Vietnam vet vigilantes who may be behind the mysterious "suicides" of a number of criminals who had gotten off on technicalities--at which point this movies turns from a cheap "Halloween" knock-off to something that anticipates the later (and much better) Michael Douglas film "The Star Chamber".

This is one of the movies that was banned in Britain in the 1980's as a "video nasty", but was so unremarkable in its native America that it is virtually forgotten today (and not even available on DVD). I'm not sure exactly sure what about this upset the Brits. There's some gore effects, but they're not that impressive. There is a lot of nudity, and the mixture of nudity and violence often got the hackles of the British censors up. This movie is also kind of misogynistic in that ALL the women are pretty much brain-dead and about as sexually discriminating as rabid alley cats in heat. (I especially like the first victim who is "going to tell everybody" that a guy she just met hours earlier and doesn't know from Adam "can't get it up"). But frankly its notoriety on the other side of the pond really gives this movie a lot more credit than it probably deserves.

More than the earlier "Halloween" or the later "The Star Chamber" this really reminded me of another late 70's film called "Killer's Delight" (aka "The Dark Ride"). That, however, is a much better movie, and it IS available on DVD, so if you're thinking about watching this, see that one instead. This is kind of "nasty" I guess, but mostly it's pretty forgettable.