Psycho Killer is a movie about a killer with mysterious motivations that makes you guess as an audience, how, why, and when he’s going to strike. It comes from the writer of Se7en, and stars Georgina Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, and James Preston Rogers. Gavin Polone injects the film with plenty of visual style, but this really feels like a mishmash of ideas and concepts. It starts with a shocking murder of a Highway Patrol officer, who happens to be main character and final girl Jane Archer’s husband. The killer, just named as Psycho Killer (for spoiler purposes), has been on a spree across states from California all the way up to the Northeast/Midwest.

Across the journey, Jane chases after the killer, only to miss him on various occasions. Quite simply, the best part of the film is the cat-and-mouse game between Jane and Psycho. The killer also has a cool design, which looks like a cross between a taller Glen Danzig and Michael Myers from the Rob Zombie Halloween films. James Preston Rogers is physically imposing and at times, hilarious with his reactions to certain things.

Malcolm McDowell plays a Satanist, who’s basically an Alex Jones type, broadcasting to the radio and putting classified ads in the paper to draw in people like Psycho. He also uses that platform to get laid and do drugs with people in acid-drenched orgies.

While watching the film, I was struck just by how different the film feels across scenes. At one section, you’re watching Psycho murder a priest in a shocking way, and another, you’re watching a tanker truck explode like it’s a Schwarzenegger 90s action movie. Then you’re following along with Jane as she tries to break through the bureaucratic tape of an FBI investigation.

Georgina Campbell tries her best with the material and McDowell chews up the lines he’s given, but outside of them and Rogers, the cast here is incredibly weak. There’s a scene between Jane and an FBI agent that’s here just to provide some exposition on what the Psycho Killer has been up to, that’s as wooden as it gets. “Well here’s a murder he’s committed” says the FBI agent, “What about this detail or wrinkle?” says Jane, “The FBI already knows about that”. Wash, rinse, repeat that for 10 minutes.

The latter third of Psycho Killer throws out all semblance of horror tropes and just becomes an action movie. Jane turns into a badass, ordering around grunts to try to stop Psycho from doing some horrible, doomsday-level thing (being purposefully vague for spoiler reasons).

For people looking to watch Psycho Killer because it has some great elements to it, maybe you’re a fan of Andrew Kevin Walker as a screenwriter, who knows. There’s a lot to like. The visuals are stylish and it’s easy to see that Gavin Polone has an eye for that as a director. But, the bigger issues with the film, including a backstory for the killer, motivations for the killer, and basically everything surrounding why he’s doing what he’s doing are unclear. So you get a cool killer for people who want that, but the surrounding elements don’t make for a great horror movie. It’s the classic case of trying too much to include too many ideas into your movie.

Psycho Killer releases in theaters on February 20th, 2026.

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