Psycho Goreman

SPOILER ALERT! There, you’ve been warned with the all caps.

For the past twenty years, there has been a dominant trend in American cinema that has gradually moved into Europe and farther east into Asia (although S. Korea and Japan are a beast of their own) that has dominated the screen. The need for blood...and more blood. More killing, more slaughter. More murder and death and calamity and chaos. Yeah, you get the point. I call this trend, the blood sacrifice effect. The saying “if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead,” comes to mind as we could see in Dan Gilroy’s 2014 L.A. crime drama, Nightcrawler. One almost senses that the filmmakers of today have become as desperate as Jake Gyllenhal’s, Louis Bloom, making a killing by exploiting his fellow man’s agony and death; showcasing an often excruciating exposé of the fatality on screen. Horror has always been a mainstay in cinema, yet the true essence the horror genre carries has rarely been showcased, save for a few films. Now, it is also subjective, as art is, in considering what is horror to someone and what is not. But maybe this is what I’m getting at; that through this dominant trend of the blood sacrifice effect, it has slowly, steadily, but surely sterilized it’s audience to anything that would of been truly horrific to watch on the screen in our grandparent’s era, to what the current and modern audience has grown immune to.

So, now, let us begin with our targeted film, Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman. This sci-fi horror, released in 2020, has throwback feels of Clive Barker’s, Hellraiser, and Troma’s classic The Toxic Avenger to say the least. I’m appreciative of the costumes, in camera effects, and prosthetics. A fan of Kostanski‘s, The Void (2016), it was refreshing to see an homage to the 80’s and early 90’s days of horror instead of the sterile, cheap, and anti-climactic corporate horror that dominated the 2010’s. Gagging. Pardon me. Yet, I digress, so let us get on with it.

The premise.

A brother and sister, unearth a magical gem that has the power to control an evil monster hell bent on destroying his enemies and the Universe. While it sounds cool, and partially intriguing, there was absolutely no purpose to this film other than than the painstaking attention to the sci-fi costumes, makeup, and sfx. I must give credit where credit is due, the real heroes of this film and Kostanski’s “vision“ is his effects team. The characters and story arc, like many horror films and films in general of our current era, are baseless and seem to create a generic plot line as an excuse to support the blood thirsty killing spree the newly named alien of doom, Psycho Goreman, is about to unleash upon Earth.

The second most unsettling aspect of the film focuses on the sister Mimi, played by Nita-Josée Hanna, who gave, albeit, an over the top performance, but a genuine force on screen, in which she secludes and cloisters herself in a rooom, choosing to pray upon the crucifixion of Jesus hanging on the wall. An act of desperation when she loses control of the unruly alien of destruction. That is before she reneges on her prayer in a wave of defiance and snatches the crucifix off the wall, snapping it in half over her thigh. Completely renouncing any type of surrender and reconciliation she offered earlier. Could this one scene also presuppose a growing sense of atheism in horror and in humanity in general? You are free to believe or not believe what you wish? But could this belief system be fueling the blood sacrifice effect? This topic will be discussed in a future article to come, but I digress once again. On with the show.

Towards the end of the film as the family actually saves Psycho Goreman from being taken out by an avenging galactic angel, who’s sole responsibility was to guard the universe against the evil alien’s destruction, Psycho Goreman is free to do what he’s been planning all along, destroying Earth and the Universe and everything in between. But wait, there’s more, almost as if it were squeezed in there to appease the story gods, a moral of the film is relinquished at the very last minute. Psycho Goreman, devoid of the concept of love, drowned out by aeons of imprisonment, rage, and vengeance, finally admits that the family has shown him the power of love just before he walks among the screams of terror and hell fire explosions he’s created as he continues with his reign of terror upon Earth, as promised.

With a quoted budget of $1.5mil on IMDb, my question has always been, why was this film made? With a growing and eager class of conscious filmmakers hungry for the opportunity to direct with an indie budget of that magnitude, this film was a waste of money and time. I’m glad that the Canadian crew was able to continue working on a film and that they all were able to pay rent and put food on the table because of it, but at the end of the day, did Psycho Goreman improve anyone’s lives? Did it create any learning lessons on life, love, grief, happiness, etc.,? If not, what purpose does it have on the screen and in cinema other than glorifying mayhem, madness, chaos, and continuing the blood sacrifice effect?

Next week, we continue with Rose Glass’ directorial debut, Saint Maud (2019). A film that has now risen to a top spot on my favorites of all time film list