Once upon a time, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker was Hollywood’s go-to guy when it came to grim, uncompromising content thanks to his script for David Fincher’s Se7en. It’s relentless down-beat tone, suffocatingly misanthropic outlook and devastating ending all made Walker a talent to watch and subsequent scribblings also gave us the similarly dark worlds of 8MM and Sleepy Hollow. But if his work on infantile, 2026 slasher, Psycho Killer is any indication, the man has seemingly lost his knack.
While the subject matter is admittedly familiar territory as we follow a cop in pursuit of another creative killer with a freaky world view, there’s a distinct feeling that something has gone awry. Rather than delivering another state of the art, gruelling descent into evil, the film delivers a string of tired tropes and strange tonal choices to give us one of the most forgettable – and inadvertently laughable – horror villains in recent memory.
A hulking, killer is traveling across America in order to fulfill a grim, secret mission – but that doesn’t mean that the man dubbed the “Satanic Slasher” by the media isn’t above the odd, brutal thrill-kill whenever an opportune moment raises its head. One such person to have the grave misfortune of crossing his path is Kansas Highway Patrol Officer Mike Archer, who inadvertently pulls him over and ends up catching a bullet in the throat for his troubles. While it’s hardly a good way to go out, at least Mike’s troubles are essentially over – which is more than can be said for his cop wife, Jane, who witnessed the whole thing and subsequently vows to bring down the Slasher single handedly, even if it kills her.
However, if Jane is going to halt the Slasher’s reign of terror, she’s going to have to figure out what the man’s ungodly masterplan actually is – which is going to be virtually impossible considering that the devil worshiping lunatic never sits still for more than a minute and keeps his face covered with a mask. However, on the flip side, as the Slasher has a major aversion to going online, he going to have to put in some serious leg work when it comes to realising his big plot, and while Jane uses her work leave to illegally track her prey, the Slasher calls upon Mr. Pendleton, a famous, wealthy satanist who has connections to find out the information he needs.
But what is the Slasher’s great plan? Surely going around the Midwest murdering random people and drinking the blood of recently pierced priests is chaos enough to satisfy his dark lord, right? However, as Jane narrows the gap between them, she soon discovers that the Satantic Slasher endgame is far more ambitious than anyone could have predicted, and if she doesn’t get local law enforcement to listen to her, disaster will reign across the entire country.
While it would be easy to suggest that the majority of Psycho Killer’s flaws lay with first-time director, Gavin Polone (the differences between he and Fincher when it comes to approaching Walker’s material prove to be like night and day), when you discover that Walker was also the producer, the drop in quality feels like the ball of blame is more in the writer’s court. Simply put, while Walker once was responsible for giving the serial killer genre the opportunity to go to the next level back in the nineties, Psycho Killer feels way more like an angry fifteen year-old has hate scribbled the script in a battered A4 folder while death metal lambasts his ear drums. The result is a film that tries incredibly hard to be edgy, but instead feels more like an adolescent fancy come to life in a way that would have felt more at home alongside more pulpier, satan-powered thrillers such as The First Power, Shocker, or even House III: The Horror Show.
The thing is, there’s a nugget of a good idea here as we watch a bereaved cop tackle a similar, nomad-style existence in order to take out the murderer who slaughtered her hubby, and some of the rare moments where Psycho Killer actually feels like it’s going somewhere usually involves Georgina Campbell doggedly pursuing the titular maniac. But even though Campbell manages to be the sole identity who emerges from Psycho Killer with any dignity still intact, her plot feels little more than a weak rip-off of the more police-centric parts of Longlegs. But whenever Campbell is off screen, the time we spend with the killer proves to be surprisingly boring when you consider that the same writer once created the fascinatingly layered John Doe. If you think that the Satantic Slasher has something of a childish moniker, wait until you see the overblown, sub-comic book gimmicks the film has him adopt in an cringe-inducing attempt to create some sort of malevolently cool horror icon.
Driving about in a muscle car and consuming enough antidepressants to medicate an elephant, this lank-haired sadist dresses like the guitarist from Slipknot despite the fact that his industrial-themed mask he frequently dons makes him incredibly easy to spot. But while all this seems to have been employed in order to score some sort of future action figure deal, what little effectiveness the character has is obliterated when you struggle to hold back chuckles at the ludicrously deep voice he’s been given.
The violence comes thick and fast, but it’s neither horrifying or exhilarating, even when the film takes a random left-turn to have the Satanic Slasher visit a mansion filled with orgy loving satanists being lorded over by a typically over the top Malcolm McDowell. Not only does the moment feel bizarrely out of place, but it makes the whole film feel even sillier than it did before – even when the Slasher feels the need to pull out an axe massacre in the midst of a sex party.
Worse yet, when we discover the extent of the killer’s plan, the third act suddenly shifts into supervillain territory when the Slasher’s target is finally revealed and any semblance of a creepy, low-key thriller is dashed thanks to Walker going unnecessarily epic. Again, the twist isn’t technically bad, so much as the antagonist making an abrupt shift from psycho to domestic terrorist just doesn’t fit the tone of what has come before.
With that being said, looking at Psycho Killer as a whole, I’m not exactly sure what Walker and Polone were attempting to shoot for in the first place. Goofy slasher icon? Haunting backroads cat and mouse thriller? Chilly revenge flick? Psycho Killer tries it’s hand at all of the above and promptly fails at them all. Oh, and while we’re on the subject, prepare to get completely sick and tired at the utterance of the word “slasher” as it ends up being said at least five times per scene…
Walker seemingly confirms that his best serial thriller days are very much behind him thanks to a confused little horror flick that ends up being devilishly stupid. Psycho Killer, Qu’est-cu que c’est? Nothing much worth watching, as it happens.
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