Psycho Goreman‘s Ridiculous, Bloody B-Movie Schlock Will Put a Smile on Your Face

Feeling down and need a movie to put a smile on your face? May I recommend Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman? It is a lore-heavy, anti-religion, sci-fi/dry comedy/musical/horror film complete with its own intergalactic heavy metal dodgeball scene—in short, it is the perfect movie to watch when you need to forget about your woes and envelop yourself in the comfort of B-horror schlock.
Psycho Goreman opens not unlike a Star Wars movie, with bright text on a dark background providing a quick synopsis to get viewers up to speed. Here, there is no story of space priests, but of one vile figure known as the Archduke of Nightmares, who terrorized the planet Gigax with his immense and horrific power. The supposed forces of good banded together and defeated him, banishing him to a planet far away.
Cut from the dramatic music to a mud-filled backyard on Earth where siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) discover an ancient amulet while playing Crazyball (think dodgeball but with more rules). They mistakenly resurrect the Archduke, who wishes to kill everything and everyone. But that doesn’t bother Mimi. In fact, and much to his dismay, Mimi sees him as a new cool buddy. After a quick brainstorm session, the Archduke of Nightmares is now Psycho Goreman (Matthew Ninaber), or PG for short. PG learns to love and discovers a possible interest in hunky boys, a divided family is reunited, a young girl learns her lesson and a lot of heads explode.
What makes Psycho Goreman so effective is its lightning-fast changes of pace, moving from intense sci-fi to dry comedy so quickly that you get whiplash. PG’s somber flashbacks to his home planet grind to a halt as Mimi loudly declares she’s bored. None of this film is meant to be taken seriously, so drama is quickly undercut with a snide remark to bring everything back to Earth. The dramatic rug is quickly pulled out from under you, making you land on your cinematic ass with a smile on your face. Melding two emotionally extreme genres with two extreme stories about alien societies and suburban family dysfunction, writer/director Kostanski makes a film full of heart (both literally and figuratively).