Psycho Killer Review: We Need A Better Class of Satanist
A movie that feels as if it was unearthed forty years too late.
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Success is great, but it’s hard to follow up on an all-timer. Even in a long career, that sets expectations (for right or wrong). David Fincher struck gold with Se7en, an ominous and impactful dark serial killer noir thriller, thanks in part to Andrew Kevin Walker’s stellar script.
Fincher sits high among the rare echelon of directors who can lay claim to more than one masterpiece, with the aforementioned Se7en, The Social Network, and Zodiac being arguable contenders. A key part of what makes Se7en so good, however, is its spectacularly haunting script (and wildly messed-up ending). With Psycho Killer, penned by the same hand and also featuring an obsessed detective in pursuit of a serial killer animated by Christian lore, high expectations make sense.
Unfortunately, this time the devil’s in the details.
Psycho Killer stars Georgina Campbell as Highway Patrol officer Jane Archer, who witnesses the death of her husband Mike during what should be a routine traffic stop. She comes to believe the killer is the “Satanic Slasher” who has been carving his way across the country, leaving messages to Old Scratch in blood along the way.
Jane set out to chase down leads and hunt him down herself for closure, revealing a hulking, masked serial killer obsessed with a kill spree at a church, heavy metal, and all the things that normal rebellious teens trying to please the Dark Lord do.
Getting a few positives right out of the gate: Georgina Campbell yet again excels in the role, with ample toughness and more than enough charisma to prove an engaging watch. James Preston Rogers has a commanding, often eerie presence as the Slasher in question, with a memorable mask to match. Rogers is hulking, with highway cop shades that add unnerving mystery to his visage. There’s also at least one kill that really works, though it could be elevated and stretched out a little… It’s still great in its simplicity. The entire sequence with Malcolm McDowell as a mysterious Mr. Pendleton is a little slow, but it may well be the film’s best sequence, and the great McDowell hams it up royally.
Sure, a Satan-inspired serial killer has been done more than a few times, but the simple elegance of a vengeful, capable cop hunting a killer Satanist across the country is a good premise (if a little similar to the Denzel Washington-starrer Fallen, substitute a body-hopping demon for Lucifer). There’s ample opportunity for supernatural elements, corruption of the detective, or truly innovative, messed-up murders. Devil aside, an obsessive investigation corrupting said investigator has fueled great tales like I Saw the Devil. Here, regrettably, they substitute these promising avenues for a plot that doesn’t quite connect.
It’s hard to discuss the Slasher’s full plan here without spoilers, but it fails. What happens has a loose connection to Satanism and no visible supernatural edge; it’s merely escalated mass murder that’s explained suddenly via a "pieces click into place for the detective" montage, but it wasn’t intuitive or sufficiently established for that moment to be earned.
Additionally, there’s a major reference to the Three Mile Island accident. The 3 Mile Island accident happened in 1979 and became culturally relevant in the early 1980s, while preoccupation with Satanic Panic/ ‘Satanic’ heavy metal emerged from the 1980 book Michelle Remembers before dominating the decade. Duct-taping Satanic Panic and 3 Mile Island into the same script makes Psycho Killer feel like it was written in 1980 and unearthed 45 years later when the screenwriter was packing to move.
There’s a good movie in here. Georgina Campbell can carry a picture, and James Preston Rogers capably evokes a strong, unnerving presence. The mask is cool, there’s potential for memorable moments, and the tagline is a blank check for shocking and perverse atrocities. Just about anything interesting that could have happened didn’t, unfortunately, so we’re left with a cacophonous mess of ideas that read less like the latest from the author of a thriller masterpiece and more like Dante’s Purgatorio, stretching blindly into infinity. Go watch I Saw the Devil instead.
GRADE: F
Psycho Killer is in theaters now.
