Psychic Killer (1975)

Director:

Ray Danton

Writers:

Mikel Angel (writer)
Greydon Clark (writer)

Release Date:

December 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Horror

Tagline:

"First it drives you mad, then it kills and kills and kills!"

Plot:

A former mental patient uses astral projection to destroy the people he believes have wronged him.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Astral Projection | Psychic Power | Man Hunt | Extrasensory Perception

Cast

Paul Burke	...	Lt. Morgan
Jim Hutton	...	Arnold Masters
Julie Adams	...	Dr. Laura Scott
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Dr. Gubner
Neville Brand	...	Lemonowski
Rod Cameron	...	Dr. Commanger
Whit Bissell	...	Dr. Taylor
Mary Charlotte Wilcox	...	Nurse Martha Burnson (as Mary Wilcox)
Judith M. Brown	...	Anne (as Judith Brown)
Della Reese	...	Mrs. Gibson
Joseph Della Sorte	...	H.B. Sanders
Greydon Clark	...	Sgt. Sowash
Johnny Dennis	...	Frank
Stack Pierce	...	Emilio
Harry Holcombe	...	Judge

Also Known As:

Killer Force (Australia)
The Kirlian Effect
The Kirlian Force

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Norway:18 | UK:18 | USA:PG | Iceland:(Banned) | UK:18 (DVD rating)

Company:

Lexington Productions

Trivia:

Julie Adams' character Dr. Scott says she is from "Blyville, Arkansas". The actress grew up in Arkansas (Little Rock).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Lieut. Morgan (Paul Burke) reports that the coroner describes the scalding victim as having "first degree burns". First degree burns are the least serious (but most painful) type of burn, and the coroner would know this.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 4 (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

La Donna e mobile

Psychic psycho killer!

Psycho killer flicks are a penny a dozen, but at least this one has something about it. Psychic Killer was released before the slasher craze really kicked off, and is surprisingly more original than many films in its class. The idea behind the plot is, of course, pure B-grade horror hokum, but somehow it works out better than many 'man with a knife' flicks. The film was obviously hampered by budget constraints, and this comes across by way of the fact that much of the movie is dialogue based. The film also has something of a cheerful tone about it, and despite messy scenes that see hands ripped apart by meat grinders and someone crushed under a slab of cement, the movie never really shocks all that much. The plot follows a man who is in a mental institute after being wrongly accused of murder. While there, he learns the ability to 'psychically' leave his body, and upon getting out and realising his mother has died while he was locked away, he vows to use his new found power to get his revenge on everyone that he believes has wronged him.

The film moves slowly throughout, and since a lot of the scenes focus on dialogue, Psychic Killer never really gets a good rhythm going, and every time we see an exciting sequence, it's generally followed by a slow one. This is obviously a result of the budget constraints, although the screenplay is also somewhat at fault as the movie could easily have made more of its central sequences without over stretching the budget. The plot idea is actually one of the film's strongpoints. It's silly and ensures that the movie is very much on the 'B' side of cinema, but it's also really rather interesting. The characters drag the piece down, however, as none of them are given any time to develop and there isn't anyone on the roster that is particularly easy to identify with. The gore scenes are few, but the one that takes place in a butchers shop is a treat. Other murders that see people killed by 'accidents' are rather sinister, but also rather humorous and overall, even though this film isn't brilliant; there's enough to recommend it to genre fans for.