Psychic Killer

Decent performances by a cast of familiar TV faces enliven this routine horror yarn about a mental patient (Hutton), hospitalized for a murder he didn't commit, who learns astral projection, and uses his new powers to bump off the people he holds responsible for his arrest, his mother's death while he was imprisoned, and the price of meat! One of the murders is unwisely played for comic relief, and Hutton's monster makeup at the end makes him resemble Michael Sarrazin on a five-day bender.

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

"Psychic Killer" is quite amusing, and at the least can boast a twist on the usual sort of vengeance-themed murder spree. Some viewers might say that the ideas being explored deserve a much better cinematic treatment, but as schlock goes, this movie does show its audience a decent time. There's a fair bit of gore, and a little bit of imagination in terms of the death scenes. As guided by former actor turned director Ray Danton ("Deathmaster"), this has also got a hell of a cast of familiar faces to keep things watchable.

Jim Hutton plays Arnold Masters, a Norman Bates type who was wrongly convicted of murder and sent to a mental institution. While incarcerated, he makes the brief acquaintance of fellow patient Emilio (character actor Stack Pierce, who has a strong presence). Emilio provides Arnold with the tools to orchestrate murders while not being physically present at the murder scenes. As a result, flustered police lieutenant Jeff Morgan (Paul Burke) has to try to solve killings that don't make any sense.

The concepts of Kirlian photography (which can be seen behind the opening credits) and astral projection are good enough of a hook to reel viewers in. Hutton is good as the unbalanced protagonist. Making appearances are Julie Adams and Whit Bissell from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", Nehemiah Persoff, Rod Cameron, Neville Brand (as a butcher whose only real "crime" is charging too much for his meat), Aldo Ray, and Della Reese. Mary Charlotte Wilcox supplies the T & A as a sexpot nurse who likes to tease her bedridden patient. In a supporting role is film director Greydon Clark ("Without Warning"), who co-wrote the picture with Danton and Mikel Angel.

This movie is "good" fun, although it does lead to a pretty horrific finale.

Seven out of 10.

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.

We've all heard the expression "if looks could kill," but how about thoughts? What if it were possible to kill somebody, no matter the distance, using the power of the mind to manipulate objects. Well, that is precisely the setup of Ray Danton's 1975 horror outing "Psychic Killer," an undeniably shlocky yet undeniably fun exercise in out-of-body homicide. In the film, we meet a 33-year-old mental patient named Arnold Masters (Jim Hutton, father of Timothy, 42 here in his final film), who repeatedly declares his innocence of the charge of murdering his dying mother's doctor (his mother had had no health insurance, and so that doctor had refused to perform a lifesaving operation on her; a situation that resonates even more strongly today, 36 years later!). Masters' luck soon takes a decided turn for the better, however, when his innocence is established, a fellow inmate gifts him with a voodoolike amulet, and he is released from confinement. Too bad, though, for all the folks who crossed Masters in the past, as the amulet soon confers on him the ability to slay from afar. As the film's trailer proclaimed back when, "The Evil of the Future Has Arrived"....

"Psychic Killer" has a rather simple, straightforward story line, but to the film's credit, it also boasts a cast of pros who seem to be having fun with it. As the investigating cops on the case, we have TV vet Paul Burke and Aldo Ray (not quite 50 here but looking much older). Masters' therapist (and God knows he needs one; the poor guy has almost as many mother issues as Norman Bates!) is played by Danton's then-wife, Julie Adams, who viewers will perhaps best remember as the bathing-suited beauty who is carried off in "The Creature From the Black Lagoon," and Israeli-born Nehemiah Persoff chews the scenery winningly as an expert on parapsychology and Kirlian auras. As for Arnold's victims, three of the unfortunate bunch are Whit Bissell, here nudging toward the end of his remarkably prolific career, Mary Wilcox, who had recently greatly impressed me playing the beautiful necrophiliac in the highly underrated film "Love Me Deadly," and Neville Brand, as a butchered butcher. It is a pleasure to watch these old pros dig into this dubious material and help put the conceit over. As for former actor turned director Danton, he does just fine in this, his third film (his two earlier pictures were "Crypt of the Living Dead" and "Deathmaster"), giving "Psychic Killer" some nice jolts and really keeping things moving; still, the picture cannot help but give off a decided Kirlian aura of cheese. The film is hardly a sleek-looking affair, and seems at times a bit crudely put together, but again, the enthusiasm of the cast, Danton's evident skill and William Kraft's occasionally freaky-deaky background score help smooth over the rough patches. Really, my only beef here is with that car that topples over a cliff, falls hundreds of feet...and fails to give the viewer a nice, satisfying fireball explosion to cap things off. Danton, apparently, should have watched some '60s Bond films to learn how to give such scenes a nice dramatic topper! Other than this quibble, though, my seal of approval to "Psychic Killer"...straight through to its incinerating conclusion.