User reviews

I barely ever get to say this when it comes to horror movies, but the sequel is a lot better. Don't get me wrong, "Psycho Cop" has its moments, but obviously it sinks like a brick after the caretaker meets his demise. He was the glue that held everything together, without him the movie's plot almost seemed incoherent and moronic. And talk about screen presence, no definition is high enough to do the character justice. Oh caretaker, you were truly a God amongst men, nobody could hold an axe for vague reasons like you could. Sadly when you take this ingenious character out of the equation, you're stuck with the kind of average slasher movie people were already sick of back in 1989. Cars never start, phones never work, people keep wandering of into the woods for stupid reasons, dead killers are never as dead as they look, every teen is 35 years old, it's that kind of movie and very little more. Officer Joe Vickers is a pretty amusing psychopath, but I think he's much better in "Psycho Cop Returns". He just doesn't have material in this movie. "Psycho Cop" is not quite funny and not quite scary either, sort of a failed slasher pastiche.

Well sure, we ALL loved "Maniac Cop", the 1988 horror semi-classic from William Lustig and Larry Cohen. "I want to do that too" is what writer/director Wallace Potts must have thought, and not even a year later "Psycho Cop" magically appeared. There's only one little problem, though. Wallace Potts is (was...) a talentless hack! He was only capable of imitating the obvious and superficial aspects, like the idea of a police officer as a horror villain, the title sequences and even blatantly the tagline (from "you have the right to remain silent ...forever" in "Maniac Cop" to "you have the right to remain dead" in "Psycho Cop"). But apart from all that, "Psycho Cop" is nothing but a mundane and terribly by-the-numbers late 80s slasher.

I'm not going to lie, I had tremendous fun watching "Psycho Cop". But mainly because it's such an unbelievably inept and dumb slasher, full of embarrassing clichés and hopelessly empty-headed characters. Even when half of the six-headed group is already killed off, the remaining ones keep assuming the others are off buying beer or playing pranks. The killer, Officer Joe Vickers, is one giant joke as well. He supposedly is a devil-worshiper, but he totally doesn't have the profile of a Satanist. Apart from drawing one stupid pentagram in the sand, he does nothing what devil worshipers would do. He simply slaughters teens whilst hysterically laughing and saying moronic things.

All this I can tolerate, but why-oh-why doesn't "Psycho Cop" feature more barbaric gore and gratuitous nudity? We have three beautiful girls (especially Palmer Lee Todd is very hot... and that even rhymes) laying by a pool half of the running time, but none of them takes the bikini top off. Lame! And now I must get my dirty little hands on the sequel.

A country cop has a bad life and turns to satanic worship and killing everyone which happens to include some holidaying young people headed off to a very pretty lodge in middle of America somewhere.

What we are left with is a regular formula campy horror movie where there is always at least one person holding the group back from making reasonable decisions due to his unbreakable desire to holiday with his friends so one by one they get knocked off because no stands up for their own point of view and just leaves.

My primary complaint with this movie is the very wooden execution of the jokes told by the very persistent psycho cop. I laughed maybe once or twice hence I'm not rating Psycho Cop too low it is a B-Horror after all and one needs to remember this at the end which was very typical for Horrors like this.

Other complaints include the movie being too dark especially during the climax kills. You couldn't see what was going on, maybe they've never heard of day for night. Not to mention hardly any of the characters were likeable in any way. There's no T/A and no sex scenes not to mention what seems like the tiniest budget for blood and gore.

You can understand why many didn't like it that said however it does have very good flow. There's hardly a minute where something isn't happening to keep your attention and the script is solid for a B-Horror as well. It's only let down be the feeling the movie was lacking in so many other ways as previously mentioned.

Oh God, where do I begin with this one. (Deep breath...) I am shocked and chagrined that this masterwork has not seen the light of day for a DVD release. I would love to hear B.R. Shafer's commentary on how he came up with those hilarious one liners.

In a nutshell, a group of personal friends run to the hills for some boozin' and relaxation. Their only two concerns seems to be misplaced beer and the caretaker. They missed one...a devil-worshipping cop who is on the loose and filled with one-liners and bag of tricks on how to kill. Officer Vicker's one line cliches are timely and very funny. The movie is not scary or frightening. It wasn't meant to be since it was written diligently by Wallace Potts on a weekend. It was directed and produced by Potts in about a fortnight. The attire worn by the cast is appropriate for an 80's slasher flick and adds to the air of comedy surrounding this film.

The deaths. The deaths are silly, but he employs a variety of methods as a means to killing these youths. Especially when he rips a guy's heart out and follows it with "Have a heart. HA HA". This adds to the brilliance of this movie. I prefer this movie over Manic Cop by Bill Lustig.

Overall, a night of laughter and comments like "I cant believe I'm watching this" will fill your living room as you watch this film.

Score: 10 out of 10 -- NOTE: a 6 pack should be consumed before and an additional 6 pack should be consumed during.

A low budget Maniac Cop rip off that is barely passable, made by people who obviously had no idea how to make a horror movie. Contains crappy kills, paranoid teens, and a killer who spits out one liners all while acting as wooden as a post. But hey it also has jokes... What has eighteen legs and two tits... the supreme court! 😂😄😀😐😒

We're promised a Psycho Cop, and while the guy is a cop, and commits a number of murders, he's rather goofy. While most of his lines consist of single sentences, they're almost without exception not one-liners. That is, they're not jokes, or double entendres, they're simply single lines.

The main characters are annoying, and hardly given characterizations. They're almost always looking for misplaced items, or for the caretaker. (Evidently Psycho Cop likes stealing items only to place them somewhere else later.)

Who is Psycho Cop? Evidently a former foster child who became a devil-worshiping, brutal police officer. He turned psycho after taking a day off. He's apparently really someone else named Gary Henley (sp?) or perhaps really a criminal, Ted something, I think. But even this sketchy characterization is scarcely given any attention in the movie.

Anyone looking for a Psycho Cop would be better off watching the cop in Psycho, or the T2- as-cop in Terminator 2, or watching Maniac Cop and its sequels. Psycho Cop 2 surprisingly is a lot better, though.

Many horror fans out there have seen the cable staple PSYCHO COP 2 and probably wondered about the existence of the relatively obscure original. Well I found it. It sucks!

Three unbearable yuppie college couples travel to a big, secluded vacation house despite the usual tell tale signs that they should go home. A psychotic, Satan-worshipping policeman (Bobby Ray Shafer), who walks like a robot (and gives a performance to match) does most of them in. The annoying characters constantly talk to themselves, wander off into the woods alone, guzzle buckets full of beer and whine about the feeling of being watched ("It's probably just a deer!"). People are killed with a knife down the throat, hatchet and crucifixion.

"It can't be!" screams the pot smoking caretaker before taking an axe to the head.

The entire cast is terrible.

Irritating!

Poor man's "Maniac Cop"… yeah somewhat, but it actually had me thinking of late 80s occult horror "Evil Alter". Mix those two together and then you get "Psycho Cop". Is it better for it? Not particularly. Very dumb and shoddy, but I couldn't argue that wasn't fairly entertaining in its hysterical slasher origins. Every cliché is used and imagination is lacking, but what hurt it more than anything was its antagonist's goofy manner. Bobby Ray Shafer stars as Officer Joe Vickers, but no way was he menacing when he decided to open his mouth to blab off some weak one- liner. Even his smiley appearance just was laughable. Along with his ability to be in the right spot at the right time… but hey I guess that's the devil's work for ya. What happens is that of a usual slasher outing, with some young adults heading to a remote country resort for some fun, but actually finding them selves trying to stay alive as a devil-worshiping police officer picks them off one by one. While cheaply made, it's resourcefully made with some decent make-up FX and an isolated backdrop. The foreboding electronic score is over-kill and the victims are amusedly clueless. Most of the time these characters are simply wandering around trying to find misplaced items. Stupidly entertaining stalk and slash.

Forget about Me, Myself, and Irene and all those stupid comedies if you wann to laugh until you wet yourself, I suggest Psycho Cop. This is probably the most cheesy, ridiculous movie ever, but it cracks me up. If you thought the teens in those Friday the 13th flicks were stupid, you've not seen anything until you see Psycho Cop. I must admit they do think of the well being of others though, primarily the caretaker. They spend most of the movie asking about him and who stole their beer. Lets not forget the Psycho Cop himself, well he's a satanist and a bit of a comic. He always has a funny zinger to say after he kills someone. The dialogue is awesome, for instance: "I felt someone was watching me, but it turned out to be a deer." I love this movie! Ridiculously awesome.

This movie is devoid of any thread of invested time. It seems like the writer/director (Wallace Potts) thought of the idea, wrote it, and filmed it all in the same weekend. For this reason, it is hilarious! This 'horror' film is the funniest of it's genre. All because they were seriously trying to make a good movie. They thought they were doing a good job, and that's why it's funny. All through our history, humor has come from failure...and this movie is the epitome of that philosophy. In the basic common sense, logic and continuity departments, this movie scores a 0 out of 10. Scenes magically switch from day to night, cans of soup go missing and cause more alarm than friends going missing, and - although there's no nudity - characters bathe together for unknown reasons.

The killings themselves aren't all that impressive, and the endless one-liners from Psycho Cop get pretty annoying, but I still enjoyed watching events play out in this film. Bobby Ray Shaefer fully embraces his character, and there's nothing like watching a Satan-worshipping, lunatic Psycho Cop serial killer who truly enjoys his work. This is kind of a poor man's Maniac Cop but it is bad for all the right reasons if you like B movies.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10.

This was a movie that I didn't know about until getting in podcasts. I believe that I heard about this one, maybe two, of the shows I subscribe to. It's been a while. This one isn't talked about much. Jake and I were talking about doing a show. We chose this one as neither of us had seen it and it seemed to be late in the run slasher film. It also seemed like one where we could get a good conversation going with the climate of the United States as well.

Synopsis: six college students on their weekend vacation are humiliated and killed one by one by a psycho cop.

We start this off in a messy room. There is a pentagram on the wall. We aren't sure if this was done with paint or with blood. There is a person getting ready and they wash their hands in what looks like a bowl of blood. This is Officer Joe Vickers (Robert R. Shafer) and this is our titular psycho cop.

It then takes over to a car with Barbara (Denise Hartman) and Greg (David L. Zeisler). They are newlyweds and it is their wedding night. The problem is that they're lost. She sees a police motorcycle. What is creepy is that it is parked off the road in the middle of nowhere. She wants to stop to ask directions. Greg is reluctant as this is eerie but does so anyway. They meet their fate at the hands of this cop. I should point out here there is police chatter on the radio filling in backstory.

We then meet our group of college kids. Eric (Dan Campbell) is driving. He is dating Julie (Cindy Guyer), who the best way to remember her is that she always brushing her hair. She is also a 'Debbie downer'. In the back is Doug (Jeff Qualle) who is dating Sarah (Linda West) as well as Laura (Palmer Lee Todd) who is with Zack (Greg Joujon-Roche). They're on their way to a house that a couple of them paid for after a savvy business decision. The group isn't very smart though as it is broad daylight and they have open containers in the car. They pass a cop car. The group keeps an eye to see if it follows them.

Little do they know that the car is driven by Officer Vickers. He pulls out and follows them. They make the turn off, but it is done abruptly. The cop also pulls in before turning around and leaving. This makes the women nervous. That changes when they see the place they're staying. It brings the excitement back. They pull in and meet the caretaker. He spooks them having an ax as he does. He gives them a bit of history. It appears that the original part burned down but was rebuilt. The bank now owns and rents it out.

Our group settles in for a good time. Stalking them is the Officer Vickers. He first takes out the caretaker. Things start to go missing and our group blames each other. It is when Sarah's purse goes missing as does the beer do they think it is someone else. Sarah's purse is found and they speak with Officer Vickers. It takes a turn when Zack goes to get beer and is attacked. No one knows so they believe he is messing with them. This is just the start of the nightmare for the rest of our group as they're isolated and attacked by this psycho cop.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is with something I said in my opening. This is a late in the run slasher film. It came out in 1989 so right where these movies fell off. This does things that are good and relevant to today. This is also influenced by things like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street where comedy was interjected. The latter even more so with things that our villain says.

Let me then start with positives here. I love the idea of a psycho cop. I'll keep this from going too political here, but we see things like this in the news. Police brutality wasn't necessarily in the forefront from what I know in 89. What is terrifying is that police officers disarm people as we look at them as people of authority. We assume they are there to help. It is scary when they're not. I like the premise here. Then to a negative. This does feel like it is borrowing from Maniac Cop. I don't know if this one knew fully what it wanted to do. It sets up that Officer Vickers is a satanist. He also seems like he can teleport. I'm not sure if he's supernatural or not. It feels like they want us to feel that way, but not going fully into that. Regardless, Shafer is a big guy and fit the role.

Now let me get over to what I think about slashers. I'm not the biggest fan which is something I've come to realize. For these to work, you need either good kills or a group of characters. I'll start with the former. I was worried that they were going to be offscreen with the first couple. That isn't the case though. I love it when they use police items for weapons as that makes it unique. There is a nightstick, taser and police car as weapons. I know another he handcuffs a victim to a doorknob. I like that. Since this house is near the woods, they lean more into going generic with hatchet, ax and other items. To me, it would serve better to stick with police items. The effects were fine though. No issues there.

I should then go over to the characters. I'll be honest, they're not great. Part of that could be the writing, but I also think that the acting is subpar. This is a slasher though so I can be forgiving. Shafer has a good build to be our menacing villain as this crazy cop. His one-liners are bad and cheesy though. Qualle, Todd, Campbell, Guyer, Est and Juojon-Roche are all generic. There are little things that I noticed to help differentiate but they're all annoying. Other than that, the rest of the cast was fine. Props to two of the first three victims, Hartman and Zeisler, to come back as police officers later. I like this low budget movie doing what it can for extra characters.

All that is left is with the other film making aspects. The cinematography is fine. The rip I saw on YouTube looked to be from a VHS. It was hard to see things at times. I do think that what they did there worked in setting the atmosphere. That gets creepy due to the isolation of where they are. This is a slow burn though as most slashers are. We get kills early on to set the stage before our characters are picked off. I thought that worked better than some I've seen. This isn't poorly made.

In conclusion, this movie is a decent, late in the game slasher film of the 1980s. I do think there is social relevancy here with having a killer police officer. The problem there is that I'm not sure if they're going with him being supernatural or not. It feels like the filmmaker doesn't know either. The killer is good, except for the bad comedy with one-liners. I don't care for our characters so we are here to see them killed. This isn't poorly made though. I did like the police items used for killings. I wish they leaned into that more. I'd recommend this if you like lower budget slasher films as this is fine overall.

My Rating: 5 out of 10.

It has to be one of the worst movies ever but is very good to watch. We quite often play drinking games to it, for example everytime they say "beer" which is a lot take a drink. I think it has to be watched more than once to be fully appreciated.

It has some good ideas but how the hell the cop catches up to people when he is walking and they are running or even in a car i don't know.

Overall worth a watch and a laugh.

If you took 'Friday the 13th' and combined it with 'Maniac Cop' you'd get this 1989 number called 'Psycho Cop'. A been there, done that horror film that only barely stands out from the pack because the murderous killer is a satanic cop instead of some nutcase in a mask. You get the usual foray of jump scares, characters acting retarded because they have to for the sake of the story & a villain mugging for the camera.

A young couple driving in rural America spot a police motorcycle out of place on a back road. So doing what people logically do they stop to investigate and naturally get murdered. Radio reports mention a cop with brutality complaints against him who's gone missing and may be up to satanic rituals. What fate do you think awaits three more young couples on a trip to the countryside who've rented a house for the weekend?

The story is unoriginal and borderline boring. The phone lines get cut. Friends start slowly disappearing. The only other person around for miles - the house's caretaker - goes missing. By the time the creepy cop - Officer Joe Vickers (Robert R. Shafer) - pops up individually to the victims to explain away odd events (like say all the missing people) the writing was on the wall. Some mild blood, but nothing creative to the kills. Very little suspense given the isolation vibe. No female nudity.

'Psycho Cop' looks decently made and the acting is passable. It's just one of those low budget dtv titles that used to line video store shelves without an ounce of style to set itself apart. It must have did alright on home video though because four years later a sequel emerged. This time the nutty cop is in an office building with trapped horny guys & strippers. Seriously I can't make this up.

Move aside Matt Cordel? (AKA the Maniac Cop).... nope. Just arrest this movie and call it a day.

The only horror found in this film is the leading man's acting, playing an over the top, almost camp, devil worshipping cop who stalks a bunch of 30 year old looking teens on their vacation in the woods. Well, more like a mansion with a bunch of trees around it.

The plot has been done a billion times before, you know, the typical "there's someone out there" but done laughably.

Everyone's picked off one by one as the comicly bad cop stalks around the house and surrounding woods while cackling like an idiot and showing acting I haven't seen so bad since his previous scene. It all ends in the typically predictable way all these Friday The 13th wanna-be's do.

You might think this film is just a rip off of Maniac Cop, but surprisingly it's not. Apart from being killer cops, the two share nothing in common. That's not to say I'd recommend checking this film out, tho. It really wasn't worth the time watching a bad actor in a done-to-death premise where the costume of the killer is the only thing changed in these annual 80s stalker slasher flicks.

Review? I've mislaid it...maybe it's out by the pool! I can't find it anywhere...must ask Eric...but he's not here! Maybe he's out by the pool! I can't find him anywhere! Maybe I'll ask 'insert other name here'! But I can't find him anywhere! Maybe he's out by the pool!

What's that noise in the woods - Who's that? Who's that? I know you're out there! C'mon Eric! I know it's you! You weren't out by the pool and weren't bringing beer and I couldn't find you anywhere...it must be you...

Wait...a crap cop? ACting really badly? But not by the pool...what the AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGGH

Psycho Cop is crap

this movie is briiilllllliant! i laughed all the way through! the acting is terrible, the victims are unbelievably (and hilariously) stupid, and the psycho cop in question gets to utter some of the funniest lines, while laughing, grinning & murdering like a true nutcase! watch this film! you'll love it!

HEY EVERYBODY ITS ME (4) and today we review .... maniac cop part 7 ???? The movie !!!!!!!

But for reals .... lets just consider this the "asylum" release of maniac cop lol.... however this one has a more "leprechaun" or nightmare on elmstreet" feel with the one liners the psycho cop delivers regularly .... it REALLY reminds me of JACK FROST ..... no NOT the one with batman in it ...the other one ...in fact i almost swore that the cop in this one WAS the same guy who played jack frost just by some of the facial expressions he made .... but NOPE completely different actors .... my bad THOUGH a psycho cop VS jack frost ..... just saying ..... too bad awesome trash films of the 90's are a dead and gone era .........too too bad .........

NOW this film comes out the year after maniac cop? .... something like that ....is it TRYING to bank off the success , ride those coat tails OR was it trying to just be its own fun and silly thing ? ... i mean you have tons of killer cop films throughout the late 80/90s , including rotor the robot cop one lol.... so ripping off films AND the cop theme isnt just for ripping off JUST cop zombie films ...but this one isnt a cop zombie film ..so is it ripping off maniac cop or is it just ripping off the name ??? MANIAC cop - PSYCHO cop ..... maybe ... "crazy cop" ...or "seriously close to the edge police officer" .... has a nice ring to it ........ they might have been able to avoid the being accused of ripping it off IF they just changed that name up OR maybe they banked off the name like the asylum films do using blockbuster films and mocking them and BAM people watch your film thinking its the other one ...CONFUSION = SUCCESS ???? Right ???

Well the acting is 80/90's so is everything else .... so its great in a bad kind of way, ... same old story , young people going somewhere private + killer = DOOM nothing new ....even for back then it wasnt new .... its basically a TON of people running in circles .... literally same location and someone goes outside looking for someone else then back in to find out something happened just to go back outside and repeat just with different people asking about "wheres ______" then going to look for ______ lol.... until die ........

35 minutes " i swore i brought 6 boxes of soup ? " ..boxes of soup ????BOXES ..... OF ..... SOUP !!!!!!!!!!! What ?????????

The editing leaves me asking who invented time travels because at points the girls running from upset officer ....then suddenly shes not ....and he lost her ? Even though 0.5 seconds ago he was 2 feet behind her ?????? So not sure if they were drunk when editing OR maybe accidental editing ? .... maybe they hired a REALLY impressive dog to edit BUT still guys keep in mind ...its IS a dog all the same .... no matter how impressive his resume was .... paws just cant edit very well .... obviously ........

so was it a GOOD film ? ...not really ..... same old crap in a same old package, looking alot like all the others of the era so it doesnt have much special going for it to make it something WOW you know .... was it a fun film ...yea it was ........ the one liners are terrible ...and the entire thing is just awful in that nostalgic kind of way from the 90s ........so if your a fan of lost treasures of the 80/90s then yea youll love it .. IF your not / dont like films that are terrible from the 80/90s ..then skip it like hop scotch

6 /10.

Some producer had the idea to cash in on the success of cult favourite MANIAC COP by making their own version of the killer cop storyline, hence we get PSYCHO COP. Unbelievably a PSYCHO COP RETURNS follows, and I say unbelievably because this is an absolutely awful film in every respect, one of the cheesiest and worst slasher flicks I've sat through.

Watching this as an unintentional comedy works a little better and is probably the only way you're going to manage it from beginning to end. The story involves a group of teenagers who spend the weekend at a rural house before falling foul of a psychopath masquerading as a policeman. What follows is a string of death scenes accompanied by cheesy gore effects and even cheesier one liners from the titular bad guy.

It hurts to say how bad Bobby Ray Schafer's acting is as the grinning villain; we're talking TROLL 2 level of badness here, sheer over-the-top, ham-fisted ineptitude. It's one of the film's biggest draws. The rest of the cast are all wooden, although at least the actresses are pretty. Still, PSYCHO COP is largely inoffensive, and fans of horror B-movies might find it a hoot; it's a lot funnier than many intentional comedies out there.