Written and directed by Steven Kostanski
Starring Matthew Ninaber, Reece Presley, Rick Amsbury and Kristen MacCulloch
Running time: 1 hour and 39 minutes 

by Roderick Towers, Contributor

So, you’ve befriended a space alien. Congratulations! You’ve just made a very exclusive list that includes Elliot and the kid who was the “me” in Mac and Me. What do you do if your alien isn’t a benevolent space hippie like E.T? What if your alien is a bloodthirsty warlord who terrorized the galaxy before being imprisoned on Earth? Not to worry my friends, the latest motion picture PG: Psycho Goreman has all the answers. Not only is it filled with the latest Hollywood razzle dazzle but there are a few twists and turns along the way. Follow these steps and your barbaric alien with an endless bloodlust will become your new best friend in no time!

Naming Your Alien

Every new alien friend needs a name, but what do you do when Mac and Nukie are already taken? It’s important to match the name with your alien’s personality. When siblings Mimi and Luke uncover the ancient prison of an intergalactic criminal in their backyard, you’d think they’d be in for a bit of trouble. What would keep the monster from destroying these kids and everyone they hold dear? Why, a magical gem that places the beast under their control of cours!. Now, normally in these kinds of pictures the kid who befriends the alien is likable and kind hearted. Luke is the personification of these virtues and in any other movie would be the protagonist. Not here. His little sister Mimi finds herself in possession of the gem and she’s kind of mean and a bit of a bully to her brother. A bit of a bully who now controls a monster that can mutilate people just by looking at them. Mimi is great and is played to perfection by young actress  Nita-Josee Hanna. She absolutely steals the show and, when the star of the movie is an 8 foot tall alien demon, that’s a pretty big compliment. After he threatened them with disembowelment, Mimi knew that her cool new friend would need a cool name and, just like that, Psycho Goreman (PG for short) was born.

Sharing Earth Culture

Your alien is new to earth and may not be familiar with our local customs. Elliot taught E.T the power of friendship. That one kid taught Mac about...McDonald’s, I guess. Mimi teaches Psycho Goreman about CrazyBall (a game she made up that is one part dodgeball, three parts insanity), music and the many uses of the word “frig”. Where PG differs from his cinematic counterparts is his ability to speak. Imagine if one of Rita Rupulsa’s henchmen from The Power Rangers liked to endlessly soliloquize about death and destruction. It would be like, if you met Pinhead from Hellraiser at TGIFridays for happy hour and all he wanted to do was talk about “evisceration and suffering” while you were trying to order appetizers. For instance, Psycho asks Luke, “What is love?” To which Luke responds, “You know, have you ever felt warm and fuzzy about somebody?” PG thinks for a minute and says “Like when you rip out your enemy’s spine and display it to their grieving family?” That’s Psycho Goreman for ya.

 Your Alien Friend Has Alien Friends

Remember how E.T. wanted to phone home so bad? PG wants to phone home too. He needs to call his ruthless gang of outer space assassins to Earth in order to steal back his gem and murder the children. Fun guy, ain’t he. Not to mention Psycho Goreman’s enemies are also heading his way to put him back in the ground. When confronted by marauders from outer space, it’s important to remain calm. Take a cue from Luke and Mimi. Nothing that PG does really surprises them. When he turns a police officer into a half melted living dead corpse, they  barely bat an eye. Mimi just sees him as another player for CrazyBall. In fact, unpredictability is de rigueur with a friend like Psycho Gorman. The entire movie seems to take place in some kind of hyper reality where one moment your alien best friend can be telling your parents that he will bathe in their blood and the next you’ll all be trying on outfits at a department store in a delightful montage. When you’ve got an alien for a friend, anything can happen.

Here’s the thing about Psycho Goreman. I didn’t just like this movie. I loved it. This is exactly what I needed right now. Ever since I watched it, I’ve been waiting to watch it again. You can tell that director Steven Kostanski is a fan of the “friendly alien” genre and takes particular delight in subverting it at every turn. It’s not just these movies that are built into the DNA of Psycho Goreman, it’s a litany of influences from the 80’s and 90’s from Power Ranger style guitar riffs, direct to video Full Moon Features inspired monsters, and just a pinch of good old fashioned family values.  Now this is how you nostalgia. It’s not just about throwing some kids in 80’s fashion or even setting your movie in the 80’s. It’s the little touches. When you’ve got a rap song detailing the plot of the movie playing over the end credits, you know what you’re doing and you’re doing it right. 

This is the cinematic equivalent of a Weird Al “style parody”. These were Al originals that didn’t poke fun at a certain song but were in the style of a particular artist or genre. Here the filmmakers are paying tribute to a style of movie, but they’re playing a slightly different tune. Hell, it’s right there in the title.  E.T. the Extra Terrestrial / PG: Psyco Goreman. Now, when I say parody I don’t mean like Scary Movie or it’s ilk. This is more in the vein of Meet the Feebles where a beloved piece of childhood is put through the ringer.  From his days with the filmmaking collective Astron-6 with movies like Manborg and Father’s Day to his more recent solo efforts like The Void, Kostanski has played with the cinematic tropes of those particular decades while making movies that have their own distinct vibe and that vibe is “wild as hell”. Psycho Goreman reaches a point where it stops being a movie proper and just loses its damn mind, giving itself fully over to its own ridiculous premise. I think it’s somewhere between the moment that PG turns one of Luke’s friends into a giant pulsating brain with googly eyes and when he explodes a child just by looking at him. This movie isn’t going to be for everybody, but the people it’s for are going to love it. I almost wish that it was released in the decades it’s emulating because then we’d get the Official Psycho Goreman Souvenir Magazine, puffy stickers and action figures. I NEED Psycho Goreman action figures! Move over E.T because there’s a new alien best friend in town and his name is Psycho Goreman!

 PG: Psycho Goreman will be available for digital purchase and rental on Jan 22.