With his new film, Pyscho Goreman, Canadian film director, Steven Kostanski shows us that he understands that for genre fusion to work, you have to understand where to two genres meet.
Nita-Josee Hanna plays Mimi and Owen Myre plays Luke. Mimi and her brother, Luke, inadvertently release the ancient intergalactic alien warlord that was imprisoned in their backyard. Who, these two kids subsequently discover, Mimi can control with the gem she pulled from Pyscho Goreman’s prison.
Nita-Josee Hanna, at 12 years old, is a force to be reckoned as she takes Kostanski asking what would happen when a bratty kid finds the gem that both compels the ultimate evil buried in her backyard and powers his intergalactic campaign of death, and balances these archetypal stories just as well as Kostanski. Despite having a living nightmare at her total control, Kostanski pushes Mimi’s growth just as much as she herself pushes Pyscho Goreman.
In a role that’s one part, Tim Curry in Legend and one part Power Rangers episode, Matthew Ninaber gives a soul to Pyscho Goreman inside the suit while Steven Valhos gives PG that perfect Saturday morning cartoon villain voice.
Favoring tight shots, quick editing, and great comedic timing, Kostanski pairs his work with a beautifully 80’s synth score to create a feel and pace of a Saturday morning cartoon. There’s a lot to love with Pyscho Goreman, despite some uneven moments, and that includes the horror. PG lives up to his name in that this film has a lot of gore in it. And, in favouring practical effects over CGI, Kostanski creates some truly memorable moments that will have you grinning from ear to ear as Mimi and her family see more and more of PG’s world.
And her family takes to their familial tropes as PG does to killing. Owen Myre, Adam Brooks, and Alexis Kara Hancey are the stability that Mimi needs in her life.
If you’ve ever fondly reminisced over the memories around an old VHS you found in the back of a drawer, then Psycho Goreman is for you. The film channels the best of Saturday morning cartoons with just the right amount of schlock. Rating it at 4 out of 5 stars.