We all have fond memories of browsing the shelves of video stores when we were young and pouring over the straight to video movies with the box art that were writing checks those films certainly could not cash. I remember during one video store excursion with my Dad, my eyes became glued to the VHS box to a film called Guyver II: Dark Hero, which depicted a hero in a high tech suit of armor looking like something out of Power Rangers. A quick inspection of the back of the box revealed that this hero in the awesome armor fought equally awesome looking monsters, and despite the fact that I had never seen the first Guyver, or even knew what the hell Guyver was, I asked my Dad to rent it for me. My Dad, never one of sound judgment, did so, no doubt thinking that Guyver II was probably mindless, childish superhero entertainment. Much to my surprise, I found Guyver II to be quite darker than I expected (even though the title should have been a dead giveaway) and extremely violent. To me, it felt like I was watching a grown-up version of Power Rangers or a Kaiju film.
Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman feels like a lost relic from the video store age in that, like Guyver, it should be something meant for kids but is clearly aimed at adults. The plot of Psycho Goreman feels like a demented Saturday morning cartoon, where two children accidentally release a genocidal alien overlord from a prison buried in their backyard. Unfortunately for this murderous intergalactic conqueror, these kids also come into possession of a gem that gives them control over him, and they dub him Psycho Goreman. What ensues is basically the anti-E.T. as Psycho Goreman repeatedly threatens to murder the two siblings in control of him while they turn him into a playmate. Meanwhile, Goreman’s old enemies from the other side of the universe are on their way to Earth to take care of him, this time for good.
One thing that I had to admire from this film is just how much it commits to being bat-shit insane. The mythology around Psycho Gorman (or PG for short) and his intergalactic foes feels fully fleshed out and interesting, and all of the character designs are unique and coupled with the practical effects, makes parts of this movie feel like an episode of Power Rangers on acid. Despite being dark and violent there’s something oddly…cute about this movie. You can’t help but feel for PG despite knowing that he’s a murderous would be galactic conqueror, and there are some twisted moments in this film that somehow also manage to be sweet.
Though I will say that the mean-spiritedness of this film may also be a sticking point for some people. There really isn’t an outright “good” character to root for. Even the aliens that are coming to kill PG are just a different flavor of bad from him. It’s bold of this film to make you want to root for an alien that wants to enslave Earth, a little girl who delights in bullying her brother, and her deadbeat dad, but this film does just that. There were even some bits of this movie that I thought went a little too far, like when PG kills a child and horribly mutates another. These moments are played for laughs but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy at a film asking us to laugh at a kid who’s turned into a massive, tentacled brain who then asks if he’ll ever be normal again. Psycho Goreman though is a film that wears its pessimism on its sleeve and doesn’t care what the audience thinks. Against my better sensibilities, I found myself having a ton of fun watching a movie that fully embraced its B-movie nature.
Psycho Goreman isn’t a film that takes itself too seriously and neither should you. If video stores were still a thing it would be the perfect Friday night rental. Like Guyver II, it’s Power Rangers for adults, where the monsters bleed and there’s no wholesome moral at the end. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s not pretending to be. I really admire this film for fully committing to its story and swinging for the fences though it certainly doesn’t hit every ball out of the park. If you’re looking for a fun, B-movie ride then this might be for you, and unlike the straight to video films of yesteryear, the movie inside lives up the eye-catching box art.
James Reinhardt