Tags:
Film: Psycho Cop Returns
Year: 1993
Director: Adam Rifkin
Writers: Wallace Potts and Dan Povenmire
Starring: Robert R. Shafer, Barbara Niven and Rod Sweitzer
Review:
This was a movie that I decided to watch thanks to my co-host on Side Quest Podcast. We covered the original one. He saw a bit of the trailer for this one and said that it took place in an office building. This intrigued me so I figured we would go ahead and check this one out as well for a review on the show. Other than that bit, I went blind. I did recognize the name Adam Rifkin before seeing this. I was also glad they brought back Robert R. Shafer as the titular character. When the credits started, I saw Julie Strain's name, who is another person that I know of.
Synopsis: a psychopathic cop decides to kill everyone who he thinks has broken the law.
We began in a doughnut shop. Larry (Rod Sweitzer) and Brian (Miles Dougal) are chatting. They're planning a bachelor party for their buddy, Gary (Dave Bean), who works with them. This party is going to be at work after their boss, Mr. Stonecipher (John Paxton) leaves for the day. Larry is talking about how he has secured the strippers, Mike (Nick Vallelonga) has gotten the alcohol and he asks if Brian has the marijuana. There is a cop in the place and this freaks out Brian. The cop is Officer Joe Vickers (Shafer). He strolls over and confirms they're not planning anything illegal. They put his fears to ease, even though Brian looked nervous.
Our two characters head back to work. We see in the background a police car following them. Brian notices it as well and puts the weed in a mailbox. Larry goes over to the car and it speeds off. Brian is still anxious about this. It doesn't go away when the car also comes to their work and parks.
In their office we get to meet everyone that I've introduced already. We also meet Sharon (Barbara Niven) who I believe is in accounting. Larry has a crush on her and she does seem to flirt with him, but I wouldn't say she is interested. Also in this building is a security guard, Gus (Al Schuermann), Tony (Justin Carroll) and Chloe (Carol Cummings). These latter two are having an affair with each other, using this building to make it happen.
The entertainment for the night is Stephanie (Strain), Cindy (Melanie Good) and Lisa (Maureen Flaherty). Officer Vickers also shows up, killing off all those that get in his way and as the synopsis says, finding different crimes they've 'committed' to punish them.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I'll start is that this might work better than the original. I'm not saying that this one is great. What I will say is that it fits in a similar vein as the first one and the setting this in a high-rise office building is good. There are empty floors, but I can buy that since it is after hours. Plus, the type of police officer that Vickers is, it makes more sense for him to be in the city as well. I'll credit this concept for working better.
Sticking then with the positives, this is a decent low budget slasher film. Officer Vickers is given many people that become 'cannon fodder'. That is something I can appreciate in a slasher film. I would have liked more kills to be either police or office building themed, since we have a solid location for everything to go down. I do think that it does well enough there though. He does seem to go back to using his gun a bit too much which is a bummer. I'll also pull in the effects. They aren't great, but I also don't have issues either. Everything looked to be practical, which is good. There is a character that I think takes a bit too much damage and survives, but I digress there. Overall, this part of the movie was solid.
Now I do have a problem that I had with the original as well. I don't think the Satan worshipping stuff amounts to anything. It almost seems to be done to just show that he's a villain. I think it would work better if we knew that it gave him powers. If he needed to sacrifice a certain amount of people. If the killings were more ritualistic, that would also work. This just seems to be done as I said to just show that he's a bad guy for not only killing, but his beliefs. This is a misstep.
Let me then go over to the acting. I think that Shafer has a good body size for the role. He is imposing and looks like a cop. What doesn't work though are the one-liners. He's trying too hard to be Freddy or the Leprechaun. They are cheesy but could be worse. Niven is solid as our female hero. She is also quite attractive. What I will say is that she is strong willed, but they don't give her a lot to work with. The character development here is lacking across the board to be honest. I'll then just say that Sweitzer, Valleglonga, Bean, Paxton, Carroll, Cummings and Schuermann are all fine. The outfits that Strain, Good and Flaherty are wearing are great. They work well as strippers. I did have an issue with Dougal and his overacting. His facial expressions just drew my attention and I couldn't get past it. His acting other than that was fine.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I've already said my piece on the effects. I'd say that the cinematography is fine. They don't do anything out of the ordinary there. It is shot well though. The soundtrack didn't necessarily fit. It goes whimsical at times and I noticed it. There were times where it did help build atmosphere, but I was noticing it more for the negative unfortunately.
In conclusion, this is a decent follow up to the original Psycho Cop. I think that the story we have here works better. Neither of these movies are great by any stretch though. The bright spot would be the effects and the size that Shafer brings to the role. The rest of the acting is fine. This is made well enough. My issues come from story elements being underused or soundtrack not necessarily fitting. This is a movie to get friends over for drinks and laugh. I've seen worse though and this is a fine low budget slasher film.
My Rating: 5.5 out of 10