Directed by Gavin Polone, crime thriller Psycho Killer positions itself as an edgy, Satanic Panic take on The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Longlegs (2024), two films that define an entire horror subgenre. Those movies work so well because of their measured, deliberate pacing that ultimately reinforces their haunting overtones. Going into Psycho Killer, I expected something similar, but with far more provocative visuals and themes.
What a letdown this film was. Expecting an explosive take on the cop/serial killer cat-and-mouse film, I was left with a hurried, half-baked mess that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Psycho Killer fails to be, at the very least, entertaining; it’s incredibly messy and boring on every front. Very few shots feel intentionally composed, and the ones that do are too few and far between to make up for the overbearing boredom of others.
Narratively, it’s just as boring, with little to no character work, and the character work that is there is rushed. I find it ironic that the film so heavily advertises screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (who famously wrote David Fincher’s Se7en (1995), another standout in this subgenre) when this screenplay is nowhere near the level of his most iconic work. The biggest problem with this screenplay, as previously mentioned, is its rushed feel. Characters are moved on without any payoff, and no narrative arcs serve anything meaningful for the audience to chew on. The biggest reveal of the film, the killer’s identity, makes so little sense that I rolled my eyes.
What makes films like Lambs and Longlegs work in comparison to Psycho Killer is how slowly they take their time with the audience, slowly making them more and more uncomfortable until the lead is boxed in by the game the killer is playing. Psycho Killer is so haphazard that there is no time for the lead, played by Georgina Campbell (best known for her turn in Zach Cregger’s Barbarian (2022)), to feel any discomfort, and thus, the audience feels none either. Officer Jane Archer, Campbell’s character, is hardly a character at all due to Walker’s sloppy, emotionless writing. Campbell does her best with the material, giving an ultimately decent performance, but she deserves better.
There is one diamond in the rough in this sea of nothingness, though: James Preston Rogers as the titular psychotic murderer. His turn as a faceless, brooding Satanist is easily the most compelling component of the film. He steals each of his scenes and actually got a laugh out of me in one instance, despite his intense demeanor. Rogers’ killer has little to no motive beyond unwavering Satanic worship, which fails to give him depth, but not every killer needs pages and pages of backstory to be menacing. He reminded me of Ry Barrett as Johnny in 2024’s In a Violent Nature, as Rogers employs the same skulking around and creepy silence. The killer in Psycho Killer is far from any sort of horror icon, but he certainly stands out as a major player.
Despite one compelling performance and a slightly different, overtly Satanic angle on a serial killer, Psycho Killer is too derivative for its own good while simultaneously failing to pay homage to the much better films it is inspired by. The performances are serviceable, with Rogers standing out, but they’re still working with a stale, surface-level script. There is the ghost of a decent, compelling crime thriller/slasher somewhere in here, but at some point in production, it was hacked away into an incoherent mess.
Review Courtesy of Nadia Arain
Feature Image Credit to 20th Century Studios