Movies
[Review] ‘Psycho Goreman’ Puts Emphasis on Goofy Gory Fun
The chances are that if you grew up in the ’90s, you were a fan of the highly popular Power Rangers TV series. Based on the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai series, Power Rangers featured a group of teens donning super-powered suits to battle rubber-suited monsters and entities from alternate dimensions to protect the Earth from ultimate destruction. Even if you weren’t an avid fan, the expansive reach of the series was unavoidable. Psycho Goreman, the latest from filmmaker Steven Kostanski (The Void, Leprechaun Returns), infuses the tokusatsu genre with his gory splatstick sense of humor, making for a blood-soaked spectacle for the ’90s kid at heart.
Siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myer) couldn’t be any closer. They spend nearly every waking moment together, getting muddy and playing their made-up game Crazy Ball. It probably helps that Mimi is bossy and domineering. The fearless tomboy steamrolls just about every family member with her assertive personality, especially dad, Greg (Astron-6 member Adam Brooks). During a particularly grueling game of Crazy Ball in the backyard, the siblings uncover a strange gem that awakens an evil intergalactic conqueror. The being, which the siblings’ dub Psycho Goreman, is eager to assemble his former team of evildoers and continue their path of destruction, while the benevolent rulers that locked him away in the first place race to stop him once and for all.
The only catch is that the gem gives Mimi the ability to bend P.G. to her iron will.
Kostanski checks off every major nostalgic box in his evocation of ’90s era live-action fantasy fare, from Power Rangers to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The over the top creature designs brought to life via rubber-suits, the highly exaggerated portrayals of good and evil, equally melodramatic battle sequences, the tropes, and the insanely cartoonish action and style feel right at home with our childhood favorites. The only key difference is that Kostanski employs his impressive special and visual effects background to add a very adult layer of bloodletting and gore to the fold.
It doesn’t just add stakes to the mix, at least for the intergalactic beings, but the carnage adds a hefty dose of humor, too. There are no lofty ambitions or depth here; Psycho Goreman wants to give you a good time, plain and simple. It achieves that through the bizarre bond that Mimi forces upon her unwilling captor. P.G. intends to destroy and create Hellraiser-like art with his victims’ entrails. Seeing his bloodthirsty quest derailed by an undeterred child with zero sense of danger makes for a goofy yet charming time.
Though intentional, Mimi is an exceedingly abrasive character guaranteed to be off-putting for some. She creates so much trouble and pain unto others, and she’s not sorry for any of it. That she leads the film, along with her quieter, more passive brother, means that enjoyment could hinge on the character’s reception. There’s an attempt to layer in a more poignant conflict between family members later on, but it feels shoehorned in and half-baked. None of it’s necessary, either; you’re watching this for the gory monster mayhem.
Psycho Goreman delivers the schlocky space operas of our youth but injects hyper-violence and splatstick mayhem to liven things up. It’s a no-fuss, straightforward story meant to showcase the special effects and creature designs, and it more than delivers there. We may not care about the human protagonists by the time the end credits roll and the ’90s-style end credit rap kicks in, but Kostanski’s latest does leave you hoping to see more of P.G. and his continued quest for domination of the cosmos.
Psycho Goreman releases in select theaters, VOD, and digital HD platforms on January 22.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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