Psycho Killer (2026) - Movie Review
What if I told you that a reader of this website recommended a movie that nearly made me punch my television out of frustration with almost every facet of the production?
I don’t appreciate the snickering.
I have readers.
What if I told you this film was possibly created by the same wire-born menace that gave us 2024’s blight on humanity, Tarot?
Oh yeah, strap in…
This is gonna be a bumpy ride.
Let’s discuss.
Psycho Killer is a 2026 serial-killer thriller brought to us by director Gavin Polone and writer Andrew Kevin Walker. Both men have storied careers in cinema, each in their own way. Polone has produced various projects, including executive producing Curb Your Enthusiasm, and producing roles in 1999’s 8MM and 2026’s Cold Storage (which we loved: Review). Walker should be familiar to horror fans as the writer of some of my favorite movies of all time: 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, 1995’s Se7en, and 1994’s Brainscan. He also wrote: 9MM.
See the connection there?
These guys have worked together various times throughout the last three decades. You’d expect they’d have a shorthand that would lead to brilliant filmmaking. However, it is quite the opposite.
The film loosely focuses on patrolman Jane Archer after witnessing the murder of her husband at the hands of a spree killer called the Satanic Slasher. Rather than mourning her loss, she decides to use her bereavement leave to hunt down the killer. But, with no leads and only a loose understanding of the case, she finds a link in the Killer’s pattern that the FBI missed, but when they turn her away, she goes rogue. What follows is a bloody chase to stop the Slasher from completing his dark ritual. Will Jane be able to stop him, or will she just be another victim of the Psycho Killer?
Sounds cool, right?
Georgina Campbell realizing she made a huge mistake taking this role.
This film is lazy, illogical, unrealistic, plodding, and an all-around extremely unpleasant viewing experience.
Not because of the violent content, but because of the terrible script, incomprehensible continuity errors, terrible SFX, and dog-shit editing. This movie plays out as if a nine-year-old wrote it and lacks any authenticity. This is one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and the financial backers should be flogged in a public square.
It’s surprising to me that this is Polone’s directorial debut, because he has worked with some incredible directors over the years. You’d think he’d have absorbed some of their discerning eye, but I think the actual shooting director didn’t want their name attached to this career-destroying credit.
The script is a mess of ideas, none of which are fleshed out. However, the leaps in logic taken throughout the film are so nonsensical and moronic that I don’t think a human wrote it.
In my opinion:
This script is a product of generative AI.
Allegedly.
I 100% believe this script was a product of heavy utilization of generative AI. How do I know this? Because the film’s four plotlines are almost scene-for-scene ripoffs of recent video games and comic books. But I’ll save that for the spoiler section at the end of the review.
You’re telling me they didn’t take the character design from Hatred? Really? He has the same fake tough guy voice!
Incomprehensible timelines make a terrible script into an infuriating movie.
I know I’ve urinated all over the script, but the timeline is something separate altogether. This film hits the halfway point, hits an actual moment of tension, and then becomes a completely different movie. It finally gets interesting and then just stops, does a time jump, and all the characters act completely different. My wife yelled at the TV because her brain couldn’t take the gaslighting bullshit the editor of this film was shoveling out.
Original Mask Design huh?
There is no logic.
Imagine a seven-year-old was asked to combine Rob Zombie’s Halloween II and The Silence of the Lambs through the lens of the late 2000’s Michael Mann, but limit them to a single page, and require that they write it in cursive. Yeah, it’s so fucking bad that even my wife, who loves everything and never pays much attention, slammed her phone down and raged at the screen.
Wait, another shot for shot story beat? Except the videogame has a more realistic scenario.
It’s Go Away Heat.
In pro wrestling, the term Heat refers to the act of a villain (heel) enacting evil upon the hero (babyface). It’s as if the heel’s (villain’s) fist is a bellows that stokes the coals under the audience’s feet, raising their ire. Rowdy Roddy Piper was famous for his belief that the boos of the crowd were the ultimate validation. Go Away Heat is when a heel or babyface overstays their welcome. That’s when the boos turn to silence, anger to apathy. In the territory days, it’s when a promoter would announce a “Loser leaves town match,” where the character people were sick of would get banished forever to massive pop (cheers). Of course, that performer would go a few stops down the interstate for six months and then come back at a dramatic moment to massive fanfare.
Nothing really matters.
Freddy Mercury said it best. This film is shot day for night or has a terrible AI 8k grain filter over it. The lighting in almost every shot is counter to its setting. In a pitch-black room, the lead character’s face is washed out like they’ve stared into the Ark of the Covenant.
The digital SFX (***IMO*** AI AI AI AI AI ***JOKING***) suck.
Malcolm McDowell should be ashamed of himself. There is no way he needs the money at this point.
Georgina Campbell, fire your agent. You are so much better than this trash.
This film should’ve been written off as a tax break.
Do not watch.
Do Not Pass Go.
Anything else would be a better use of your time.
I’m not telling you where I watched this, because I don’t want anyone else to have to endure this brainrot slop Hollywood is shoveling into the cesspool of a societal consciousness. It’s not even bad enough to be good. I can break the film down to a prompt, much like the filmmakers did to generate the script.
I’m an alpha male!
Generate a 93-page screenplay set in the modern day, but with a domestic terrorist who’s like the unnamed protagonist of the video game and comic book, Hatred, mixed with the ideology of the real-life serial killer and absolute piece of shit, Richard Ramirez. Include an MKULTRA subplot, as seen in the series of Outlast Trials comic books and video games. Have one of the most poorly written protagonists in film history continually fail to perform even the most basic, common-sense police procedure. Utilize bullshit stereotypes about the Church of Satan and make sure to portray the Satanic, mass murdering killer as the hero when he attempts to blow up Three-Mile Island while flexing like a student of the Andrew Tate Taint Licker Academy. Spoilers.
