‘Psycho Killer’ Review: A Case of Too Many Producers and Not Enough Story

Synopsis: A police officer tracks a killer after her husband, a highway patrolman, becomes one of his victims.
Director: Gavin Polone
Stars: Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers

Horror/thriller films are hot right now. Over the last few years, we have seen films like Sinners, Weapons, and Longlegs, all of which were very well received. Breaking into this genre isn’t difficult, but because the bar is constantly being raised, it must be done well.

The latest entry is Psycho Killer. It stars Georgina Campbell as Jane, a Kansas Police highway patrol officer who, while on the job, sees her husband, also an officer, killed during a stop on the highway.

It turns out her husband was the latest victim of ‘The Slasher’. The FBI is tracking the killer, and even though Jane shows up at their door, heart in hand, offering assistance, she is rejected and told to return to Kansas.

Dorothy, I mean Jane, won’t be deterred and continues to track down the killer herself.

The killer, whose identity is kept from the audience by filming him from behind, hiding his face with dark glasses, or beneath a hoodie, is extremely violent. He kills without hesitation and with brute force. He is very tall and muscular and overpowers his victims with ease.

As the movie progresses, the motivation behind these killings comes to light, but it doesn’t enhance the movie in any way. A lot of the killings are violent for the sake of being violent.

It’s also completely nonsensical that Jane is pursuing this alone. While I fully appreciate that director Gavin Polone wants to intensify the story, it has to make sense, and there is nothing about Jane that suggests she has the tools to track down this killer. For his directorial debut, Polone is reaching . . . a lot.

By the third act, people in the theatre started to leave. In their defence, they weren’t given a reason to stay.

The reason why films like Sinner and Weapons (by the way, one of the producers of Weapons was involved in this film, impressive until you realise that the film has 10 producers) were so successful is that they didn’t go for stunts like violent kills, but they had a meaningful story behind them.

No one will mistake Psycho Killer as a strong entry into the genre.

On the bright side, the film is only 90 minutes long—it could have been worse; it might have been 120.

Grade: D

Watch the movie trailer: