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Film: Psycho Goreman
Year: 2020
Director: Steven Kostanski
Writer: Steven Kostanski
Starring: Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre and Matthew Ninaber
Review:
This was a movie that I heard a lot of buzz about. Some people got to see it in 2020 as part of the festival circuit and others were pretty high on it now that it got his wide release here in 2021. I knew this was one that I needed to check out from everything that I was hearing. The synopsis here is after unearthing a gem that controls an evil monster looking to destroy the Universe, a young girl and her brother use it to make him do their bidding.
We start this movie off getting a bit of text. There was a planet of Gigax where a ruthless and powerful being was killing everyone and thing that stood in his way. He was defeated and then imprisoned with this gem that gave him his power.
The movie then switches us over to Earth. We have two kids that are playing an odd game called Crazy Ball. The girl is Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and her brother is Luke (Owen Myre). Looking at the size, he is older, but she has a much bigger personality than him to the point where she is a bully. She is also really good at this game they’ve created. She wins and he has to dig a hole because of it. In doing so, they find a stone with a gem on it. Mimi hits buttons on it in a random configuration and the gem lights up. She then takes it.
The two kids live with their parents of Greg (Adam Brooks) and Susan (Alexis Kara Hancey). This is interesting, because the children are mimics of them to an extent. Susan is controlling, but she has more responsibilities around the house. Greg is lazy and gets upset when he’s asked to do even the slightest things.
By taking the jewel, they’ve awoken what was being held by it. This entity doesn’t seem to have a name, but we see there is a council of aliens that are led by Pandora (Kristen MacCulloch and voiced by Anna Tierney). She is of the race known as Templars. She is the one that defeated the great evil and from this group and her race is the most powerful. They know that the evil is once again awake which causes concern. Pandora disguises herself in a human she kills, Roxine Latoya Plummer, and heads to Earth to once again imprison this entity.
On Earth we see this evil she is coming to stop, the body is Matthew Ninaber and voiced by Steven Vlahos. He goes to an old shoe factory where he kills all those that stand in his way. This is done in a violent fashion and he also has power that we haven’t seen on Earth before. This creature though needs the jewel back. When he returns to the house of Mimi and Luke, we realize something interesting. Mimi has the gem and he cannot kill her. He also has to do what she says. They tried to hide this entity, naming it Psycho Goreman in the process, and causing some funny things to happen which only could when you have a couple of kids in control of one of the most powerful creatures in the universe.
Mimi has a lot of fun with her new friend, while Luke and their parents enjoy it some of the time. There becomes an interesting change here as PG gets to know her and her family as well as vise versa. This isn’t long lived though as PG calls his minions to help free him from Mimi and he also has to worry about Pandora as she tries to lock him back into his eternal prison.
That is where I’m going to leave my recap of this movie as it gets you up to speed with what this movie is about and the jist of the story. What I did leave out here is that this movie is part comedy. This is derived from a few different things that I picked up on. That isn’t to say we are getting those sci-fi and horror elements going along with it though.
I think I’ll start with the back-story of Psycho Goreman. I love the care that was placed into him along with the council of aliens and his enemies. What makes this even better for me though is depth they put in here. Psycho Goreman is a creature I would put into the same vein of Voldemort. He is the greatest evil that this universe has ever seen. What I find interesting though is that the more we learn about PG, the more he is a creature of circumstance. He was born on the slave planet of Gigax that used to be great warriors. I’m getting the vibe that the Templars conquered them and forced them into their fate. PG finds this gem that gives him great power. Due to this, he becomes powerful enough to break his chains and get his revenge. I’m taking this in the idea that he got too power too quickly so the conscious to do good isn’t there. He’s been beaten down for so long he just wants to see the universe burn.
I do find it interesting as well that Pandora and her race are Templars. This seems like something that was done on purpose. The Knights Templar being a group of knights that were supposed to be religious based, but would do some pretty horrific things. I’m taking it that these space Templars were the same. I like that PG has a change in him and what we learn makes him an anti-hero. I would then say the inverse would make Pandora an anti-villain. Both sides are corrupted and have layers to them.
Next I want to bring this to Earth while looking at the character of Mimi. Before seeing this movie, I heard some people discussing her. She is probably like 12 or 13. There is a big personality there and like I said earlier, I think that she’s younger than Luke. It is a good thing that she is raised with Susan and somewhat Greg, because she is leaning toward being a sociopath or even a psychopath. She isn’t that much different from PG. Without the right influences, she could end up down a dark path for sure. This is even something that PG uses when trying to turn Luke against her.
What I think I should address next would be the comedy of the movie. I’ve seen a few people who love it. I’ll be honest, some of it works for me, but some of it doesn’t. This is really one that I wish I could see in the theater with a group as I think it would play better. Heck, this would be a good one to watch with a group at someone’s house who are into movies like this. Watching it alone on my couch, the comedy didn’t work on me for the most part. I don’t hate it, but it does take a more whimsical look that I wasn’t the biggest fan of.
What I did like was the practical effects. This movie made up PG to look quite creepy. Heck, I’ll even say that I love the effects on all of the aliens for the most part. There is something that happened to a child on Earth of Alastair (Scout Flint), that it didn’t work for me. This is something that is played for laughs that missed the mark for me. The blood and gore we get is good here. Most of the CGI works as well. I just had some slight issues there. I was impressed though with what they did to make this movie gory without going too far over the top.
The last thing I go over would be the acting. The person that impressed me the most was Hanna here. Her portrayal as Mimi with being how young she is was great. The only thing that concerns me is that she could just really be this spoiled brat of a person and that is scary. Myre was solid as her more timid brother. I think that Ninaber and MacCulloch have a good look size wise for their characters. Vlahos does a good job as the voice of PG and the same for Tierney as the voice of Pandora. The other people I want to give credit to are the parents of Brooks and Hancey. They’re minor characters in the grand scheme, but there are times they steal the show. Those performances with the rest of the cast do round this movie out for what was needed.
In conclusion here, I thought this movie was a lot of fun. As someone who gets sucked into the story, I love the time and care that was put into the back-story of these aliens along with the human characters as well. There are some really good effects here to bring all of this to life, especially with brutal this movie gets. I also would say that the acting is good across the board, giving credit to Hanna taking on this character of Mimi. If I do have issues, the comedy didn’t work on me as much as I would have liked and there were some issues with the effects. Aside from that, they do some fun stuff with the soundtrack. For me this is a good movie and another one I want to see before the year ends to see where I fall with it.
My Rating: 8 out of 10