| Director(s) | Gavin Polone |
| Principal Cast | Georgina Campbell as Jane James Preston Rogers as the Satanic Slasher |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| Language(s) | English |
| Running Time | 91 minutes |
| Report Card | Click to go to Review TLDR/Summary |
Note: This review was done off of theatrical viewings of the film and as such the review does not feature images or extended granular analysis. Once I am able to get a physical copy of the movie to watch, pause, analyze, and get stills from, the review will be updated to match the site’s standard review format.
We sit with a man in a car. Every part of hims is out of focus, even his reflection in the rear-view mirror. This is a man who is barely here.
This perspective is maintained as we cut between alternating shots of reflective surfaces: his rear-view mirror, the side-view mirror, his sunglasses which in turn reflect his rear-view reflection from yet another angle. This is a man who is an enigma, a reflection of his environment.
He pulls past a cop.
We sit and wait for the cliche. For the cop to turn his lights on. For the driver to nervously speed up. For the cop to respond in haste. For a chase to ensue.
The cop, Michael (Stephen Adekolu), pulls out of his post and begins to follow. But his lights do not turn on.
When the driver slows down and comes to a halt, having taken hold of a gun, the roles have been reversed. It’s the cop who has been stopped by the driver. It is the cop in danger.
But the cop does not know there is a loaded gun waiting. Instead, he presses forward and asks for identification.
We wait for the moment to arrive.
Then, another cop car comes by the scene. The other officer, Jane (Georgina Campbell), greets Michael, her husband.
Suddenly, the stakes ratchet up; there is a couple at risk.
MIchael waves Jane off and tells her he’ll handle the simple issue; clearly based off the driver’s car, the case is clear and shut; there’s a charge waiting to be found and a ticket to be cited.
But Jane’s instincts won’t let her leave. She turns her car back around and bears witness as the gun finally goes off and her husband’s body flies back to the ground.
She takes aim and fires at the driver repeatedly but none of her shots are able to do anything meaningful.
She goes to her husband who passes in her arms. And so begins the cat-and-mouse scenario between Jane and the driver, the infamous “Satanic Slasher” (James Preston Rogers).
Unfortunately, the electricity in the opening sequence is never again captured as Psycho Killer, Gavin Polone’s debut feature struggles to balance the two halves of its narrative.
The opening half of the film, which predominantly follows our murderous antagonist, is filled with cinematic intrigue. Polone and cinematographer Magnus Jønck consistently utilize mirrors and shadows alongside careful blocking to ensure that we are never granted a glimpse at the killer, never once allowed a kind of humane reprieve.
The reflections only give way to the physicality of the killer when he dons his mask and goes on his sprees. We bear witness to the ritual — the mask with tinted goggles, the sudden explosiveness and commitment to violence, the symbology permeating both the killer’s body in the forms of tattoos and graffiti he paints onto the scenes of his crimes with his victims’ blood — and though there are some choices that will alienate some viewers (the killer’s voice is certainly a commitment) and some decisions that seem there are no great excuses for (ex: CGI blood), the tenacity of the formal rigidity makes for compelling cinema
This same care is not extended to our protagonist, Jane, and her arc or lack thereof.
Her single-minded quest for revenge feels flatter than our killer’s quest to mindlessly slaughter (even if it is in the name of the devil). Every attempt at giving her character some kind of humanity to serve as contrast, comes off either contrived or is given so little care in the script, that it feels farcical.
Instead of her counterpart’s rituals, her time is spent mostly running through the procedural motions of 2000’s horrors: Googling obvious terms and finding hilariously precise websites, being conveniently given information, and lucking into locations and through situations through sheer narrative brute. That these sequences are often captured with little if any cinematic vigor only hammers the dichotomy of the film harder.
Ultimately, it is this imbalance that makes Psycho Killer both intriguing and frustrating. Its portrayal of ritualistic murder is gripping but is couched in a crime thriller that operates on the basest of levels. There are echoes of bureaucratic conspiracy and true crime sensationalism, neatly presented in the diegetic discussion of the films’ murders via television and radio, that beg a question of intent: is the plot taking these asides seriously or treating them as surface dressing the milieu it wants to evoke?
The film is unable to make up its mind and as it discordant parts grind against each other, the ultimate consequence of trying to have its cake and eat it, the end of the film happens in a manner that both feels a predictable bore and irritatingly interesting. For many viewers, especially those hoping for a the taught thriller akin to screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker’s previous body of work in the genre (Se7en, 8mm, The Killer), the frustration and unevenness of the narratives plodding will deter them from considering what the film has to offer. Yet, those willing to bifurcate the films parts and take the highs in spite of the lows, will find there is surprisingly more than meets the surface.
REPORT CARD
| TLDR | Half an great film and half a dreadful bore, viewers willing to handle the lows of Psycho Killer’s inane plotting and contrivances will find an uneven but formally energetic portrayal of a ritualized killer. |
| Rating | 8.1/10 |
| Grade | B+ |
Go to Page 2 for the spoiler discussion and more in-depth analysis.
Go to Page 3 to view this review’s progress report .