Psycho Goreman

The fondly remembered days of bloody, Sci-Fi horror mayhem using practical effects is all here in Psycho Gorman.

Brother and sister Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) are playing a ball game getting covered in mud when they come across a flashing stone which frees intergalactic mega villain calling himself the Archduke of Nightmares from the Planet Gigax (played by Matthew Ninaber, voiced by Steven Vlahos) though named Psycho Goreman by Mimi who is by far the most self-assured of the two, and now has the Gigaxian Gem that can control PG.

PG messily killing of a number of homeless people is not one to trifle with but with Mimi having the gem, he’s under control, and malleable. Into this comes is an alliance of alien powers led by Pandora (Kristen MacCulloch) that put him away in the first place and are dead set on getting Goreman and the gem back.

Cue Goreman getting his old gang together, the alliance setting out to destroy PG, while Mimi and Luke introduce him to human backyard games, and their parents.

There’s a couple of ways to look at this film. As a throwback to the likes of pseudo nasties like Xtro and the bonkers absurdity of Killer Clowns from Outer Space, and related to that play on the cliches or even a comic homage to those types of films. It works both ways as there’s plenty of ludicrous violence and gore with very silly characters in monster costumes running the gamut of what is the norm of this sub-genre. Even fishing within the very wide and deep depths of Japanese anime for inspiration and laughs. Though Troma, naturally, looms large withing the project.

The set-up and execution certainly tend to suggest that writer and director Steven Kostanski has made a film as a fan for fans. That however would do him something of a disservice as he’s lobbed in a couple of off the wall characters in Mimi and Luke plus their layabout father Greg (Adam Brooks) who shambles along as PG becomes part of the family, for a time.

Overall, it is slight once you move away from the grotesque monsters and effects. It’s daft, very good fun, and should tickle the funny bone of even with those not having a vast knowledge of the source material. The acting overall is strong throughout. In particular Hanna and Myre get their teeth into surprisingly meaty roles with a distracting knowing innocence about them and a glint the eye.

Psycho Goreman is on Shudder from 20 May.