Review: PG: Psycho Goreman (2020)

PG: Psycho Goreman (2020)

Not rated

Score: 3 out of 5

PG: Psycho Goreman is an entertaining horror-comedy with its heart in the right place that's held back by one big central problem. It boasts amazing creature effects and some great kills in service to a fun sendup of the basic plot of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and its retro throwback style was very cool to watch. This should've been a slam-dunk. Unfortunately, it also has an utterly loathsome "hero" who is in some ways just as monstrous as the film's titular alien, and whose central arc does not see her face any real punishment for the awful things she does over the course of the film. By the end of the film, I was rooting for absolutely nobody and just hoping for some good carnage, which it fortunately delivered courtesy of those special effects I mentioned earlier. Overall, this film feels like an artifact of late '00s/early '10s "epic awesomeness" internet culture, something that would've been hilarious as a five-minute comedic short film of the kind that RocketJump and Robot Chicken used to specialize in but which eventually wore out its welcome as a feature film, becoming obnoxious despite having some great moments along the way.

The basic plot is that, long ago, an evil and extremely powerful alien was imprisoned in a tomb on Earth after his plot to conquer the galaxy was defeated. In the modern day, Mimi and Luke, a pair of kids in a small podunk town, discover the alien's tomb while playing in their backyard and accidentally free him when Mimi takes the strange gemstone on the lid. Mimi soon finds out that whoever wields this gem holds absolute control over the alien and his considerable power, and soon, she makes the alien into her personal slave, all while she grows increasingly drunk with power herself, much to Luke's growing horror. Meanwhile, far away in the other corner of the galaxy, the Templars, the corrupt religious order who defeated this alien baddie (after being responsible for his uprising in the first place), discover that he has escaped and set a course for Earth, as do some of his former generals when he sends out an SOS.

In short, it's an '80s kids adventure movie in which, instead of a friendly alien who wants to phone home, the main characters meet Thanos -- specifically, a version of Thanos straight out of one of James Gunn's older Troma flicks rather than his later Guardians of the Galaxy movies -- and find a way to control him. And make no mistake, this movie goes balls-out wherever and whenever it can. Our introduction to "Psycho Goreman", the name that Mimi and Luke bestow upon the alien, involves him stumbling upon a trio of crooks in a warehouse and proceeding to inflict a series of torturous deaths upon them. It's established that he likes to leave some of his victims alive just so he can make them suffer longer, which we get to see in detail when a poor cop who tries to stop him gets forcibly mutated into a slave and is later shown to be begging for the sweet release of death. The makeup effects on PG were outstanding, as were the performances by both Matthew Ninaber in the suit and Steven Vlahos doing his voice acting. The other aliens, too, all look amazing, from the twisted angelic appearance of the Templars' leader Pandora to the creative designs of PG's generals, who look like something Jim Henson might've created if he were feeling especially mean. The action scenes are a blast to watch, clearly shot on a low budget but shot by a team of filmmakers who know how to make the most of it. The visceral thrills alone, and its cool, badass villain protagonist, are enough to make me recommend this movie on those merits alone.

It's fortunate to have them, too, because the human side of the story here was absolutely loathsome, and it all comes down to one character in particular. While the film may be named for the most obvious monster in the story, there is in fact a second, less obvious but no less horrible monster at its center in the form of Mimi. This was through no fault of her actor Nita-Josee Hanna, who did exactly what the role required of her and did it well, perhaps a bit too well. No, the problem here was that, upon gaining control of PG through the gem, Mimi proceeds to use it to act out every nightmarish impulse and whim you can imagine coming from an adolescent girl and then some. She has PG mutate one of her classmates into a monster, one who is clearly shown to be suffering as a result of it. She has PG straight-up murder a girl who laughs at them on the street. She acts completely unfazed by the growing carnage around her, all while her behavior gets increasingly petty and unhinged.

The worst part is, the film seems to recognize on some level that Mimi is turning into a monster. It's a central part of Luke's character arc, in fact. There's a scene where Mimi goes to pray for a solution to the pickle she's found herself in, only for it to end with her symbolically breaking a crucifix upon realizing that her control over PG has already given her godlike power. There are two directions that this movie could've gone in that would've been better than the one it ultimately took. The first, and the direction that I think it was trying for, would've been to have Mimi realize the error of her ways and just how dangerous PG really is, and renounce her power. Perhaps PG doing something horrible to somebody she actually cares about, especially if it's something she ordered him to do in a fit of rage before she had time to think about it? The second would've been to have her not realize the error of her ways and ultimately become the film's real villain, perhaps seizing PG's power permanently and becoming a monster herself (including another cool makeup/effects job for the tween tyrant as her newfound power mutates her) and forcing Luke and his parents to join forces with a de-powered PG (himself humbled by his experience at Mimi's hands) and Pandora to stop her. As it stood, however, the resolution to Mimi's arc and the plot as a whole felt weak, the climax being more of a gag battle than anything else without it feeling like it had much in the way of real stakes.

The Bottom Line

This probably should've been a ten-minute comedy short on YouTube rather than a feature film, as it started strong and had a lot to like about it but ultimately wore on me as it went on. Come for the monsters and the gore, but don't be prepared to actually care about the human characters.