An obnoxious little girl finds a gem that controls a powerful
evil monster, whom she uses to do her bidding against his will. COMEDY/SCI-FI
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Psycho Goreman (2021)Written and Directed by Steven Kostanski
Starring Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre, Matthew Ninaber, Steven Vlahos, Adam Brooks, Alexis Kara Hancey, Anna Tierney |
When I was a kid, I used to play with G.I. Joe, Ninja Turtles, and watched a lot of Power Rangers (don't judge me, I'm sure you did too!) as well as play video games. Immersing myself into my own world where Michelangelo and Snake Eyes would battle against Krang, Shredder, Bebop, and Rocksteady. Saturday mornings were full of Power Rangers battling big ass monsters and using a robot to fight them, notice a pattern? I've loved this kind of stuff and also discovered movies like The Guyver when I was a little older and I will always have time for a monster movie. Now that I am getting older and have kids of my own, I am trying to expose them to the things that I loved to see if that love will grow in them as well. However, they're going to have to wait for the awesomeness that is Psycho Goreman.
Steven Kostanski is a special effects artist, writer, and director who grew up much the same way that I did and went a step further in making his own stop-motion movies. That lead to him joining the artist collective, Astron-6. With other special effects artists, writers, actors, and directors they made a host of shorts, features, that are known for their over-the-top concepts and total commitment to putting everything on screen. I haven't written a review for it but I will plug Father's Day here. It is a movie that Astron-6 put together and was eventually picked up by Troma and is just a total mindfuck because any description I could give would do it no justice. Let's just say: you're in for a ride. The lead actor in that, Adam Brooks, plays the Dad in Psycho Goreman so this is a director using a familiar actor and Brooks really shines in what could've easily been a throwaway role. Some other notable Astron-6 efforts also directed by Kostanski is Manborg and the mock trailer for Bio-Cop; who also makes an appearance in PG. What you see in these pieces is someone having a lot of fun doing these films and loves to play in a world of his own design and that is definitely the case in Psycho Goreman which I feel is like the culmination of his previous flicks and we're given a totally bananas movie with a lot of heart, which was unexpected when I first saw it. We're introduced to Mimi (Hanna) and her lame brother, Luke (Myre), while they are playing Crazy Ball in their backyard. Right away you get the tone of this movie is going to be playful and never take itself too seriously because there's metal blasting while the kids pelt each other with rubber balls and diving in slow-motion but when the camera pulls out, it's just them yelling at each other so you know this is all in their minds how epic their battle is. I was immediately in from this moment on and I was not disappointed for jumping head first into this world. By the end of the day Luke is digging a hole (his penance for losing the game) when he comes across a gem that is attached to a crypt that's been buried in their backyard this whole time. What they don't know is that they have unknowingly unleashed a creature so brutal, it has no name. The Archduke of Nightmares. A malevolent force of pure evil and chaos which will undoubtedly end all of existence...or so he thinks. And this is part of the genius of this movie is that Kostanski doesn't let you get comfortable with what kind of movie you are watching. You think you're going one direction when he turns the movie on its head and proceeds in another direction. When Psycho Goreman makes his on-screen appearance, he eviscerates a group of thieves that shows him (it?) to be a totally ruthless being and definitely not one that kids should be playing with! When Mimi discovers that she can control the nameless one, this is where the movie picks up and runs with its My Pet Monster idea and doesn't let up. There's so much that goes on that you have to see to believe. After watching it the first time, I kept telling friends, "This is the Power Rangers movie we never got!" and that sums up this movie without giving away too much. You can't go wrong with rubber monsters, spinal cords being ripped out, heads squishing, intergalactic politics, space Christian Crusaders (you read that right), and a kid turned into a giant brain with tentacles and nobody bats an eye. Born from the image of a monster on a drum set, Kostanski packs in so much of his childhood (and all kids who grew up loving monsters) to create a movie that is so full of heart while also being hilarious and gory as fuck. Shudder picked it up so you can find it streaming there and I hope this gets The Last Drive-In treatment because I would love to hear Joe Bob wax poetic about this movie. I am still trying to go through and make a list of all the movies I have dubbed 'Party Movies' and this one is definitely on there because you have to enjoy this with friends, some pizza, and a couple cold ones. This movie really is the heckin' best. |
Psycho Goreman is essentially The Monster Squad meets E.T., if E.T. were an uber-powerful intergalactic tyrant who tried to conquer the known universe. So there's that. This film is wildly creative, surprisingly smart, and unapologetically hilarious. Basically, you've got the world's most obnoxious eight-year-old girl who has the universe's most dangerous monster on a very short leash. While I don't think I'd classify it as a horror film, I'm glad it got picked up by Shudder, which will inevitably lead to more people checking it out.
Meet Mimi (Hanna), a rebellious young girl who is constantly picking on her older brother Luke (Myre), and makes everyone's life a living hell. When she stumbles onto a strange gem, she awakens an evil space despot who was sealed away on Earth long ago. She learns that she has control over him with the gem, so she dubs him Psycho Goreman (Ninaber and Vlahos) and forces him to do dumb shit like play games and punish her enemies. But space forces feel PG's return, and a self-righteous warrior named Pandora (Tierney) comes to Earth to fuck him up. But has PG learned the value of family and the power of love? You'll have to watch the movie to find out, but trust me when I say it is totally worth your time. Psycho Goreman is a film I was in no way prepared for. I didn't know it was a comedy, so that was a welcome surprise. It's got some horrifying moments, like when PG turns into a giant mouth and straight-up eats a guy. That was nucking futs. But the overall message about love and peace (or at least mild tolerance) wins out. This is definitely on its way to being a cult classic. |