Psychic Killer

PSYCHIC KILLER is certainly an effective little horror film, very much a product of its era. It's a film with many flaws, not least the shoddy construction of certain scenes and the general slow pacing that never pays off, but at the same time it remains interesting. The plot is a unique one that mines the late '70s craze for 'psychic' thrillers (see also THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, PATRICK, THE MEDUSA TOUCH) and the creepy atmosphere is spot on.

The weird-looking Jim Hutton stars as a guy sent to prison for a crime he may or may not have committed. Whilst inside, he befriends a black guy who gifts him the power of psychic ability, and on release the guy simply sits back in his chair and wills the deaths of those who have wronged him or his family in some way.

Much of the running time consists of a series of weird death scenes more than a little reminiscent of the likes of the FINAL DESTINATION series. They're well staged and avoid cheese for the most part, and an interesting cast and production team adds to the fun. Paul Burke's investigating cop is a great character and the actor's very likable. Aldo Ray has a minor role as a supporting detective and the evil-looking Neville Brand plays a butcher. There are roles for two famous faces from the 1950s, Whit Bissell (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) and Julia Adams (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON). The script was written by Greydon Clark, who went on to direct WITHOUT WARNING, and the direction was by Ray Danton, the SANDOKAN actor. Give it a look.

Kirilian photography is featured throughout this intriguing film. Although promoted as horror, the sci-fi element is strong. Mental patient, Jim Hutton, eliminates his enemies with "accidents" carried out through psychic phenomena. Naturally this series of bizarre killings has the police quite perplexed. Such creative dispatches to the beyond as dropping a cement slab on his shyster lawyer, could easily be interpreted as "black comedy". The lets get right down to "business" romance between policeman, Paul Burke, and Hutton's Psychiatrist, Julie Adams, even has some levity to it. The movie has sexual titillation, nudity, splatter, creative kills, and an original and impressive ending. In short, a good exploitation film, with an interesting sci-fi premise. - MERK

Psycho killer flicks are a penny a dozen, but at least this one has something about it. Psychic Killer was released before the slasher craze really kicked off, and is surprisingly more original than many films in its class. The idea behind the plot is, of course, pure B-grade horror hokum, but somehow it works out better than many 'man with a knife' flicks. The film was obviously hampered by budget constraints, and this comes across by way of the fact that much of the movie is dialogue based. The film also has something of a cheerful tone about it, and despite messy scenes that see hands ripped apart by meat grinders and someone crushed under a slab of cement, the movie never really shocks all that much. The plot follows a man who is in a mental institute after being wrongly accused of murder. While there, he learns the ability to 'psychically' leave his body, and upon getting out and realising his mother has died while he was locked away, he vows to use his new found power to get his revenge on everyone that he believes has wronged him.

The film moves slowly throughout, and since a lot of the scenes focus on dialogue, Psychic Killer never really gets a good rhythm going, and every time we see an exciting sequence, it's generally followed by a slow one. This is obviously a result of the budget constraints, although the screenplay is also somewhat at fault as the movie could easily have made more of its central sequences without over stretching the budget. The plot idea is actually one of the film's strongpoints. It's silly and ensures that the movie is very much on the 'B' side of cinema, but it's also really rather interesting. The characters drag the piece down, however, as none of them are given any time to develop and there isn't anyone on the roster that is particularly easy to identify with. The gore scenes are few, but the one that takes place in a butchers shop is a treat. Other murders that see people killed by 'accidents' are rather sinister, but also rather humorous and overall, even though this film isn't brilliant; there's enough to recommend it to genre fans for.

It was the '70s, and the ratings system was a bit different. We have plenty of graphic violence. Not too horrible, but there's definitely disturbing stuff in there, such as the meat grinder death scene. Not to mention, there is an extended nude shower scene.

I'm not arguing about the content of the movie. I rather enjoyed it. Only you look at movies like this today and wonder how it could ever have been a PG film. The content here is clearly on par with R-rated movies of today. A man is arrested for a murder he didn't commit and put in an asylum. Fortunatley, he's put in a room with a crazy black man who knows voodoo, the best way to get revenge. When he's released, he uses the voodoo man's tools to astrally project himself to dispatch the people he blames for his incarceration (and the death of his mother while he was gone). Hilarious mayhem ensues.

This is the kind of movie to watch on a Saturday afternoon. It's dull, but always entertaining. I recommend it to all fans of '70s b-horror movies.

To be honest, I actually looked forward to watching the entire movie...but then again I'm used to watching the worst of the worst Blaxploitation movies.

But the acting was actually really good. Of course all the characters names have already slipped my mind, but the female psychologist was really good, can't remember if I've seen her in anything else - guess I should research that.

The 'meat' scene was a lot more graphic than I expected. It was cool to see Judith Brown in something else other than all the Pam Grier movies I've seen.

One thing to improve Psychic Killer would have been more of Stack Pierce (THE black Visitor from the TV Series 'V') in the film (at least some more flashback shots would've been cool). Another thing may have been a non-matted widescreen print. Couple of things were cut off in this print. In other words, I think it was shot in 4:3, but matted for the DVD/theatre release.

I really liked this movie, and will keep it in my collection.