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CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Many moons ago on the distant planet of Gigax, a nameless evil reigned supreme.

This ruthless being had amassed power beyond measure and was preparing to strike down all that was good and just in the universe.

Before he could fulfill his dark destiny, the forces of light banded together, and in their most desperate hour toppled the dark one
from his throne.

He was imprisoned in a place far beyond reach, for if he were ever to be released,it would spell certain doom for all existence…




Psycho Goreman (Or PG for short!) is a 2020 Horror-Sci Fi Comedy film written and directed by Steve Kostanski. Kostanski is one of the members (formerish??) of Astron 6, who have directed such films as The Void (which kicks rear end), Fathers Day and Manborg.



PG tells the story of two siblings (Nita-Josee Hanna, and Owen Myre) who unknowingly unleash the most evil being in the universe. (Matthew Ninaber) But due to his imprisonment, the being is controlled by a powerful gem, and allows anyone who has it to force him to bend to their will.



The person who snagged the gem, unfortunately for this being, is a 10 year old psychopath who makes the poor Arch Duke of Nightmares do a bunch of stupid poo poo like play dress up, jump around, and bully her brother.



Once the word gets out amongst the Galaxy that the most evil force in the universe has been released, the council of Gigax races to our planet to end the reign of the Nameless one once and for all.




For me, PG is one of those films that when it ended it gave me that film high you only get when you watch something truly special. It’s a film that captures the joy of being a kid like nothing I’ve ever seen. It’s got monsters, gore, more monsters, and a scope that at times exceeds way way past its budget.



This was due to the films reliance on practical effects, which uses them in such a way that makes it a complete joy to watch.



In this film you have dozens of creature suits. Some are puppets, some are suits, and some are even stop motion animation.



But what makes it work for me is that it both takes itself seriously, in that it never winks at the suits or it’s deeply silly lore or makes fun of them, but also doesn’t take itself seriously at all so that it becomes a sincerely hilarious comedy.

It’s like a cross between Rick and Morty, Invader Zim, meets 80’s splatter flicks, and Power Rangers.

But it’s not for everyone. The humor for some is deeply grating, and Mimi’s complete power hungry bossy, insanity makes people shut it off. But for my money, without it? It wouldn’t work. The jokes are so loving weird and everything is so hyper specific in such a strange singular vision, and one that I personally vibe with, that I was floored by how hilarious it was.

But ultimately, and I won’t say too much now, but this film ended up being a lot more important to me than just being a movie I really loved. It not only helped inspire me to create, but in a weird way helped me to make a project that meant a lot to me. Which I hope to share soon here.

But for now, if you’re into it, grab some popcorn, bunker down on the couch, and curl up next too your own Allister, and watch….

PG

Can you dig it, man????

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MacheteZombie
Feb 4, 2007
Movie is a blast, loved all the goofy alien designs

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007
Feel free to disregard this post.

It is guaranteed to be lazy, ignorant, and/or uninformed.
Movies loving awesome

graventy
Jul 28, 2006

Fun Shoe
I love PG, it has a pretty great mix of humor and goopiness.

Hector Delgado
Sep 23, 2007

Time for shore leave!!
Great movie, the father was hilarious.

Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS
I do not care for hunky boys.................or do I?


I loved this movie so much. One of the few Blu-Ray discs I've bought in the last few years.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:


I watched it with a couple of friends and that one cop's fate (you'll know when you see him) had us in tears with laughter. I love this film.

bitterandtwisted
Sep 4, 2006




Movie's a huge amount of fun. I liked Rich Evans as the trashcan full of bodyparts

Lampsacus
Oct 21, 2008

fun to watch with friends.
my favourite joke;
'.... unless...'

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

Proud owner of the Hunky Boy edition blu ray and collectible trading cards reporting in.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Same. I love it.

My favorite joke in this movie might be the worst one of all time but it cracks me up.

“How’s this for lazy, Susan?”

The fact that Steve didn’t put that together until they shot cracks me up lmao

Gatts
Jan 2, 2001

Goodnight Moon

Nap Ghost
This was a good movie. Thank you Celtic for introducing me to it.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Yes! New convert to the PG army. I’ve been swinging and missing when it came to recs recently.

banned from Starbucks
Jul 18, 2004




This looks like the type of thing I would have loved when I was 12. Gonna check it out tonight

MacheteZombie
Feb 4, 2007

banned from Starbucks posted:

This looks like the type of thing I would have loved when I was 12. Gonna check it out tonight

Mimi seems to be the make or break character for people's enjoyment of the movie.

CPL593H
Oct 28, 2009

I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.
Who would pick a rubber suit monster movie for MotM?


Is this on Shudder?

MacheteZombie
Feb 4, 2007

CPL593H posted:

Who would pick a rubber suit monster movie for MotM?


Is this on Shudder?

Yeah its on shudder

Might be rentable in other spots but I'm not sure

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

It’s on shudder and rentable anywhere

Detective No. 27
Jun 7, 2006

I will watch it this month, I swear.

pospysyl
Nov 10, 2012



I probably would have preferred PG as a series of ten minute YouTube videos released weekly. As an eighty minute movie I thought it got repetitive, but if it was released in installments I would have been excited for each week's iteration on the lazy dad, crazy Mimi, and general ultraviolence jokes. I understand why they wouldn't do that - they wouldn't get the audience or the financial return they want/need - but I do think the movie works very well as a series of isolated scenes instead of a full length narrative.

DeadMansSuspenders
Jan 10, 2012

I wanna be your left hand man

Movie is a whole lot of fun and takes itself just the right level of seriousness vs silliness. Also, Hunky Boys.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

I'm so glad others are enjoying this. It's pure joy and love in cinema form, from the production itself to the story. I'm not really in the habit of buying physical media lately but I bought this one on sight.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Hell yeah! It kinda sucks you missed the hunky boy edition with the fun trading cards. They own lmao

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

CelticPredator posted:

Hell yeah! It kinda sucks you missed the hunky boy edition with the fun trading cards. They own lmao

I honestly bought it for the reversible cover art more than anything else.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

It was a huge surprise and cracked me up. It’s my default cover

CPL593H
Oct 28, 2009

I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.
I watched this last night and it's a really fun movie. It's obviously going to be wacky but I hadn't anticipated exactly how wacky. I was quite pleased with it because these kind of nostalgic pastiche movies can easily and often do turn out to be a bunch of half assed ironic bullshit that either tries too hard, doesn't embrace what it's doing, or both. Turbo Kid is a good example. Psycho Goreman has no such issue. The makers were completely earnest about what they were doing and loved it which you can really tell. I also love that they took full advantage of the fact that they used the majority of their small budget on their suits by playing up the absurdity of this being set against a small suburban neighborhood. The film's humor often reminded me of 90s Simpsons. Psycho Goreman really hit a lot of the right spots for me. Good choice.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

Yep!

It hit me so deeply on both a stylistic level and not gonna like I didn’t expect the heart. But I love that the heart is still super warped and absolutely weird.

Lampsacus
Oct 21, 2008

I love a lot of the non-explicit humour in Psycho Goreman. Like when the girl's crush turns into an alien and wanders home, and they don't really address the awful tradegy of this and he just trudges on for the rest of the film with his fate

CPL593H
Oct 28, 2009

I know what you did last summer, and frankly I am displeased.
You didn't add the MotM list to the OP. Looks like Psycho Goreman isn't the only monster around here!

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

I was busy editing my short film lol

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:


CPL593H posted:

I watched this last night and it's a really fun movie. It's obviously going to be wacky but I hadn't anticipated exactly how wacky. I was quite pleased with it because these kind of nostalgic pastiche movies can easily and often do turn out to be a bunch of half assed ironic bullshit that either tries too hard, doesn't embrace what it's doing, or both. Turbo Kid is a good example.

This was my issue with Turbo Kid, it kinda had the idea of what it wanted to be but didn't go balls deep with it so just ended up in this awkward middle ground which mostly just sucked a bunch and looked crap along with it.

Me watching the trailer: "I'm in!"

Me watching the film: "wow the trailer really oversold this"

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

CelticPredator posted:

Hell yeah! It kinda sucks you missed the hunky boy edition with the fun trading cards. They own lmao

Oh no, I absolutely did get the Hunky Boy edition and can't wait to integrate the trading cards into a Magic The Gathering deck and be banned from playing ever again.

100 degrees Calcium
Jan 23, 2011



I’ve never felt so understood by a movie. I’m very impressed by PG’s ability to identify the absurdity of power Rangers villains and gory horror without resorting to eye-rolling ironic detachment. This movie has heart (and spine, and spleen, and so much blood).

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

flashy_mcflash posted:

Oh no, I absolutely did get the Hunky Boy edition and can't wait to integrate the trading cards into a Magic The Gathering deck and be banned from playing ever again.

When you pull the Luke card, the players all make Luke’s face

Vincent
Nov 25, 2005



The actress playing Mimi was great as a tiny tyrant. The effects and suits were incredible.
for me the only bad part is the dad.

Fun fact: The cop who gets melted is supposed to be Biocop (also made by Astron 6). The actor who plays the cop is even the same actor from the fake trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVKO3lHlvOs

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:


Melty cop is the one thing that had me and the friends I watched the film with howling in laughter. Just his physical performance. Hilarious.

CelticPredator
Oct 11, 2013
🍀👽🆚🪖🏋

What could have been a fun, exciting movie with fantastic creature design goes off the rails pretty quickly when about 20 minutes in you realize the movie actually has no moral center. Mimi, the little girl and protagonist of the movie is the most obnoxious, mean-spirited, over exaggerated twerp ever captured on film; and she gets WORSE as the movie goes along.

The fact that the character is so grossly written might not have been a big deal if the movie had given her character just a little bit of CHARACTER (as in a moral center). Instead we are faced with a child who essentially cannot even fathom the horror of turning her friend (another child she supposedly likes) into a gelatinous brain blob or is completely unfazed by the transformation of an innocent police officer (an easy target for today's movies) into a grotesque, melting zombie-like monstrosity. This child, who is the PROTAGONIST the audience is supposed to relate to is entirely dismissive of the agony of this poor guy. There is a literal non-reaction as her and her brother go right back into their game of "crazy ball." In the next scene she uses threats of actual murder against her own brother. This, to make it clear, makes Mimi actually EVIL, despite whatever lame-brain and scattershot humor the movie tries to erect around the retro-kitsch of the movie. If anything, the traits of Mimi are actually similar to a sociopath, which is ironic, considering the movie expects you to root for her in some way. Why? Why do the screenwriters/director think this? It was a complete turn-off.

This moral bankruptcy extends to her parents, especially her father, who at the end of the movie seem completely oblivious to the fact that they have consigned everyone else on Earth to probable death at the hands of Pyscho Goreman. At the beginning of the film the comedy seems to be set up to make the father a kind of shaggy, quirky fellow who slightly undermines traditional parenting. NO. That's not the case. Out of nowhere the plot shifts into making the Dad a lazy loser and the parents actually hate each other. The tonal shifts without reason are amazing! The only remotely human character is the brother, who suffers and is bullied through the entire movie.

If you're a horror fan and think I'm being too judgmental over essentially a minor gore movie, all I can say is that IT MATTERS. The only example I can give to illustrate how poorly this movie is conceived is to compare it to the beloved Toxic Avenger; a movie that is over the top and mean-spirited with its violence, using it against children, old women, innocent bystanders and even a seeing eye dog! Why is that movie successful and this one not? Because the Toxic Avenger remains TRUE to a classic formula: The Toxic Avenger is ALWAYS GOOD, and all the villains get what they deserve in the end. The Toxic Avenger, despite being filled with casual violence that also includes a notorious scene where the head-crushing hit-and-run of a child by a car is played for laughs, ultimately is a feel-good story about good triumphing over evil, a fable about government corruption and pollution, and a nerd transformed into a kickass superhero who gets the girl. What kind of arc does Psycho Goreman have? He's a murderous, terrible (yet sometimes funny) demonic monster who is STILL an unrepentant demonic monster at the end. Yet the movie never frames anything about these characters as satire.

But that is not where the real sin lies. The crime of the movie is this grotesque, loud, camera mugging, narcissistic child who is flippantly dismissive of all the carnage around her. A morally ugly child who doesn't care if her friend is ever transformed back to a human. A girl who doesn't listen to her own parents and repeatedly threatens to murder her own brother! What's worse is that it's apparent that the movie is not purposely written to make this girl some kind of morbid, dark anti-hero (think Wednesday Addams). In other words the character is not satirical at all. Her obnoxiousness is entirely sincere. They really didn't realize they had written a repugnant character that actually no decent person should relate to. They actually thought they wrote an endearing, "hip" tween.

Here's another movie example that puts Psycho Goreman to shame: Adam Chaplin. Despite all the over-the-top gory violence, the story never deviates from the core principal that Adam Chaplin's quest for revenge is JUST. Adam Chaplin too makes a deal with a monstrous demon in that movie. The difference is the conclusion of the film implicitly tells us that Adam Chaplin's deal with the demon for his revenge comes at a spiritual PRICE. His soul is forfeited at the end to the demon. In Psycho Goreman what should we make of the extended scene in which the girl loudly declares in front of an actual crucifix (which is much more personal than a cross because it's an actual representation of Jesus) that not only does she no longer take advice from God, but is through with him completely, and then proceeds to destroy the crucifix! Ask yourself, what was the purpose of this scene? Why was it included? What was a scene about a child rejecting god supposed to elicit from the audience? Big Laughs? Make us think she was a bad-rear end? The movie is filled with suspect choices like this. What epiphanies does the family at the center of Psycho Goreman learn? Zilch. In Psycho Goreman almost everyone is evil or at least amoral other than the put-upon, sensitive son. Why isn't he the main character?

So in case people missed it: The character of Psycho Goreman starts evil and is evil at the end. The Templar Knight is evil. The table of alien representatives are corrupt. The family is obliviously stupid and dooms the entire world. The poor little boy turned into a monster stays a monster (oh, and his parents ignore him at the end). The movie takes no stance on the disposability of any of the peripheral murdered people. How can we relate to these characters? What exactly makes them funny?

Such a flippant, obnoxious movie with no true viewpoint. If you thought while watching this you liked the creatures, the gore and some of the little action bits and humor, but were wondering why you might feel empty at the end of it or couldn't place why the tone was so off-putting, this is why: The movie has no moral center. The little girl isn't some cool, smart, girl-power/girls-rock hero to emulate. She's actually a monster herself. An immoral, obnoxious cretin worthy of Psycho Goreman himself. If the movie had had the balls to have Psycho Goreman rip out her narcissistic little throat at the end of the movie (along with snuffing out her garbage parents), that would have made sense. At least that ending would have freed the brother from this disgusting albatross of a family. After all, the whole movie is built around the fact that this delinquent is controlling Psycho Goreman, yet is completely emotionally oblivious/unfazed by his violence. That cries out for it to have been turned on her. Not only would that have been justified and fitting, I'm sure the audience would have been immensely satisfied seeing this controlling, defiant, arrogant little sicko of a girl get what she had coming to her.

Sadly, this movie with its amoral tone is actually symptomatic of the times we are living in. The only cool, fun aspect of the movie is the Psycho Goreman character, who is funny and satirical - his bombastic declarations of evil always somehow getting interrupted or thwarted by the children. But that's where it ends. The rest of the movie isn't a purposeful critique of anything and barely fun. Many attempts at punchlines and humor land like lead balloons. Anything else successful (like the fantastic creature design) is undermined by the pure mean-spiritedness of the material. The filmmakers prove over and over they are actually CLUELESS. I've never been offended by a horror movie before. Not by a Serbian Film; not by Salo; not by Cannibal Holocaust. The fact that this movie has no perspective; no philosophical viewpoint and then shovels this bloodshed at the audience using CHILDREN made me incredibly sad. The fact that it comes disguised in the form of a power-rangers styled horror "comedy" made it all the more sour; and I wish audiences were smart enough to question what they are ACTUALLY LOOKING AT on the screen. All I can say again is that it matters.

Of course, most horror fans leaving 4 and 5 star reviews are either mentally 12 year olds or are just the type of horror fans who have massive horror dvd collections and go "COOL!" every time an ounce of blood is spilled (even though they've seen such things thousands of times before). These are the viewers who miss the entirety of why the movie is so bankrupt and atrocious in a REAL WAY, but are confused by Hereditary and think The Witch is slow. Someone should sic Psycho Goreman on them to melt their faces! Maybe they should go back to watching actual Power Rangers series. At least those had a moral universe to them.

STAC Goat
Mar 12, 2008

Watching you sleep.

Butt first, let's
check the feeds.

I like being the antithesis of what this guy thinks horror fans are. I love "slow" morality plays or deep emotional stores. I hate horror that's just gratuity for the sake of it. And yet I love Psycho Goreman, perhaps because I got that Mimi being the actual monster is the entire point/gag?

Capntastic
Jan 13, 2005

A dog begins eating a dusty old coil of rope but there's a nail in it.

CelticPredator posted:

What could have been a fun, exciting movie with fantastic creature design goes off the rails pretty quickly when about 20 minutes in you realize the movie actually has no moral center. Mimi, the little girl and protagonist of the movie is the most obnoxious, mean-spirited, over exaggerated twerp ever captured on film; and she gets WORSE as the movie goes along.

Frig off!

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Medullah
Aug 14, 2003

FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

STAC Goat posted:

I like being the antithesis of what this guy thinks horror fans are. I love "slow" morality plays or deep emotional stores. I hate horror that's just gratuity for the sake of it. And yet I love Psycho Goreman, perhaps because I got that Mimi being the actual monster is the entire point/gag?

Yeah at no point did I see Mimi on screen and think "Yes, this is who I should be rooting for!"

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