Psycho Cop (1989)


REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


In hopes of capturing the success of the 1988 William Lustig action/horror pic, Maniac Cop, comes Psycho Cop a year later, a film that embodies everything that was wrong (and right!) with horror from the 80's. The story follows a group of young friends that head to a secluded getaway home for a little vacation time, but find themselves being stalked by a mysterious and seemingly overzealous police officer. Little do they know, this is the same guy that just murdered a couple at the start of the film, and now he's got his eyes set on the group. Dun, dun, dunnnnnn..

The script, combined with the bad acting, takes the film into a whole new level of hilarity, especially with some of these idiotic characters. One girl for instance is your typical blonde airhead, who for whatever reason, spends the entire film brushing her hair. At one point she loses her brush and proceeds to look for it on the grass, bushes, and tool shed? WTF?? Since when did she go in there?? Then we've got several scenes where a character literally stops everything and proclaims that they "heard something". This happens AT LEAST 5 times in the film, which leads me to believe this is probably the most paranoid bunch of victims I've ever witnessed in a slasher, all of which are paranoid for no apparent reason either.

As if all that wasn't already bad enough, later on a couple characters spot large footprints on the ground and deduce (by that alone) that somebody's out there looking to kill them. Despite the fact that there's been no sight of blood or dead bodies and there really is no other reason what-so-ever to immediately think there's someone after them aside from sheer paranoia. Normally in these films they'd have to at least stumble onto some blood or something at one point, but nope, here all they need are footprints!

There are many more illogical scenes in the movie that come off as comical (intentional or not) like when the Psycho Cop spies on one of the girls from outside then his black silhouette turns to the side and randomly calls her a bitch (big LOL moment there), or when the whole gang realizes they're out of beer, so they naturally come to the conclusion that a "prowler took it." Yes, someone broke into the property just to steal your shitty 6-pack and nothing else.

As far as the killer goes, he definitely has a Voorhees complex -- there are several scenes where he walks at a brisk pace and somehow still manages to pop up outta nowhere right next to the character, regardless of how fast they were running. He also has some crazy strength too, and we're lead to believe this is all due to his "devil worship" which was revealed early on. I could go on and on about all the other plot-holes or cover the atrocious (but funny) dialogue, but then I'd spoil all the fun! Had it not been for so many of these issues it wouldn't have been as entertaining as it was, and for that it wasn't a complete waste of my time.

Simply put, Psycho Cop is a bad movie, but in a good way. It's got shitty dialogue, terrible acting, loads of plot-holes, and a WTF killer. If you're into all that then you'll probably dig this cheesefest. Otherwise, I'd advise steering clear of this one, because Maniac Cop it's not.
OVERALL: 
Simply put, Psycho Cop is a bad movie, but in a good way. It's got shitty dialogue, terrible acting, loads of plot-holes, and a WTF killer. If you're into all that then you'll probably dig this cheesefest. Otherwise, I'd advise steering clear of this one, because Maniac Cop it's not.


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