Tags:
Film: Psycho Cop
Year: 1989
Director: Wallace Potts
Writer: Wallace Potts
Starring: Robert R. Shafer, Jeff Qualle and Palmer Lee Todd
Review:
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