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Psychic Killer
Mental patient Arnold Masters, hospitalized for a murder he didn't commit, learns astral projection--the art of leaving one's physical body and transporting the soul someplace else--from a fellow inmate. Upon his release, Arnold uses his new powers to bump off the people he holds responsible for his arrest, his mother's death while he was imprisoned and the price of meat! Lt. Morgan and Lt. Anderson are the cops on his trail, while his caring shrink, Dr. Scott, tries to prevent any more deaths.
Release : | 1975 |
Rating : | 5.5 |
Studio : | Syn-Frank Enterprises, Lexington Productions, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Jim Hutton Paul Burke Julie Adams Nehemiah Persoff Neville Brand |
Genre : | Horror |
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Rating: 6.1
Reviews
Great Film overall
Captivating movie !
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
"Psychic Killer" is quite amusing, and at the least can boast a twist on the usual sort of vengeance-themed murder spree. Some viewers might say that the ideas being explored deserve a much better cinematic treatment, but as schlock goes, this movie does show its audience a decent time. There's a fair bit of gore, and a little bit of imagination in terms of the death scenes. As guided by former actor turned director Ray Danton ("Deathmaster"), this has also got a hell of a cast of familiar faces to keep things watchable.Jim Hutton plays Arnold Masters, a Norman Bates type who was wrongly convicted of murder and sent to a mental institution. While incarcerated, he makes the brief acquaintance of fellow patient Emilio (character actor Stack Pierce, who has a strong presence). Emilio provides Arnold with the tools to orchestrate murders while not being physically present at the murder scenes. As a result, flustered police lieutenant Jeff Morgan (Paul Burke) has to try to solve killings that don't make any sense.The concepts of Kirlian photography (which can be seen behind the opening credits) and astral projection are good enough of a hook to reel viewers in. Hutton is good as the unbalanced protagonist. Making appearances are Julie Adams and Whit Bissell from "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", Nehemiah Persoff, Rod Cameron, Neville Brand (as a butcher whose only real "crime" is charging too much for his meat), Aldo Ray, and Della Reese. Mary Charlotte Wilcox supplies the T & A as a sexpot nurse who likes to tease her bedridden patient. In a supporting role is film director Greydon Clark ("Without Warning"), who co-wrote the picture with Danton and Mikel Angel.This movie is "good" fun, although it does lead to a pretty horrific finale.Seven out of 10.
PSYCHIC KILLER is certainly an effective little horror film, very much a product of its era. It's a film with many flaws, not least the shoddy construction of certain scenes and the general slow pacing that never pays off, but at the same time it remains interesting. The plot is a unique one that mines the late '70s craze for 'psychic' thrillers (see also THE EYES OF LAURA MARS, PATRICK, THE MEDUSA TOUCH) and the creepy atmosphere is spot on.The weird-looking Jim Hutton stars as a guy sent to prison for a crime he may or may not have committed. Whilst inside, he befriends a black guy who gifts him the power of psychic ability, and on release the guy simply sits back in his chair and wills the deaths of those who have wronged him or his family in some way.Much of the running time consists of a series of weird death scenes more than a little reminiscent of the likes of the FINAL DESTINATION series. They're well staged and avoid cheese for the most part, and an interesting cast and production team adds to the fun. Paul Burke's investigating cop is a great character and the actor's very likable. Aldo Ray has a minor role as a supporting detective and the evil-looking Neville Brand plays a butcher. There are roles for two famous faces from the 1950s, Whit Bissell (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) and Julia Adams (THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON). The script was written by Greydon Clark, who went on to direct WITHOUT WARNING, and the direction was by Ray Danton, the SANDOKAN actor. Give it a look.
Psycho killer flicks are a penny a dozen, but at least this one has something about it. Psychic Killer was released before the slasher craze really kicked off, and is surprisingly more original than many films in its class. The idea behind the plot is, of course, pure B-grade horror hokum, but somehow it works out better than many 'man with a knife' flicks. The film was obviously hampered by budget constraints, and this comes across by way of the fact that much of the movie is dialogue based. The film also has something of a cheerful tone about it, and despite messy scenes that see hands ripped apart by meat grinders and someone crushed under a slab of cement, the movie never really shocks all that much. The plot follows a man who is in a mental institute after being wrongly accused of murder. While there, he learns the ability to 'psychically' leave his body, and upon getting out and realising his mother has died while he was locked away, he vows to use his new found power to get his revenge on everyone that he believes has wronged him.The film moves slowly throughout, and since a lot of the scenes focus on dialogue, Psychic Killer never really gets a good rhythm going, and every time we see an exciting sequence, it's generally followed by a slow one. This is obviously a result of the budget constraints, although the screenplay is also somewhat at fault as the movie could easily have made more of its central sequences without over stretching the budget. The plot idea is actually one of the film's strongpoints. It's silly and ensures that the movie is very much on the 'B' side of cinema, but it's also really rather interesting. The characters drag the piece down, however, as none of them are given any time to develop and there isn't anyone on the roster that is particularly easy to identify with. The gore scenes are few, but the one that takes place in a butchers shop is a treat. Other murders that see people killed by 'accidents' are rather sinister, but also rather humorous and overall, even though this film isn't brilliant; there's enough to recommend it to genre fans for.
Although the plot to the movie is far fetched, I really enjoyed the diversity in actor Jim Hutton. I've never seen him like this before & I enjoyed what I saw. A must for all horror fans & Jim Hutton fans alike!