In Psycho Killer, Kansas Highway Patrol agent Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell) hunts down a satanic serial killer (James Preston Rogers) after she witnesses him murder her husband, a fellow Highway Patrol agent. Desperate to prevent more senseless deaths, Jane tracks the killer and in the process realizes that he has much bigger plans than random acts of violence. As each murder brings him closer to his ultimate goal, Jane finds herself continually one step behind the talented psycho. Will Jane be able to stop him before he can enact his grand finale?
So much wasted potential. The threadbare screenplay feels more like an outline and desperately needed a few more passes or re-writes to beef up the characters and lore. Seven scribe Andrew Kevin Walker penned the screenplay. He also penned Sleepy Hollow, 8MM, and The Killer and co-wrote Windfall and The Wolfman. The first draft of the screenplay was finished in 2007 and his second draft was completed in 2008.
It’s admittedly a different take to make a “detective procedural” from the pov of the killer. Unfirtunately, our psycho killer (dubbed the Satanic Slasher, played by James Preston Rogers) is a deeply silly character. He wears silly sunglasses, has a silly little mask, and speaks with a silly ultra-deep voice that sounds like he’s speaking through a voice changer. I’d bet all of his lines are dubbed. He gets no motivation, and the explanation of who he is is barely explained.
We never get a good look into the Satanic Slasher’s psyche or what makes him tick besides the movie explicitly stating that he is an insane Satanist. There are tiny breadcrumbs in the film that hint at who the Satanic Slasher is and how he got here, but the audience has to put the pieces together for themselves after the film has ended. The quick news report in the 13th hour that briefly exposes his identity plays like serious whiplash. Georgina Campbell is great and compelling, despite being given essentially nothing to work with. The cinematography by Magnus Nordenhof Jønck is pretty, even if the locations and sets are bare bones.
This is director Gavin Polone’s first feature film (He was attached to direct since 2010), and it shows. His work as director here feels absolutely absent. He’s got no presence. Psycho Killer wants to be taken seriously. It wants to be dark and cool, but is woefully unaware of just how silly it really is. If the screenplay had been worked on a significant amount more, this could have been interesting. There was definite potential here. Unfortunately, as is, Psycho Killer is an under-developed nothing-burger.
2 STARS
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