“Psycho Killer”
Genre: Horror/Crime
Rated: (R)
Released: February 20, 2026
Running Time: 1 hr 32 minutes
Trigger Warning: strong bloody violence, drug use, gore, full nudity, sexual content, death
Rating: 5/10
Among the plethora of gory horror movies out there, Psycho Killer is about as mediocre as most are.
The movie, released February 20th, 2026, was directed by Gavin Polone, who previously produced A Dog’s Purpose (2017) and Zombieland (2009). While he is better known for his comedies and dramas, he has directed horror films before, albeit rarely. “Psycho Killer” may not have the same big names in it as some of the others Polone has directed, but it still features some, like Malcom McDowell and James Preston Rogers.
To jump in, the opening credits immediately put the audience off. It’s only two and a half minutes long, but it feels like an eternity before the movie starts. It would’ve been a much better opening had the beginning not dragged as much as it did.
The film redeems itself, though, since someone dies within the first ten minutes. It sets the stage for the rest of the story; the killer has no mercy or want to drag out people’s deaths, unlike some other films, like “Scream,” where they want to take longer to torment their victims.
We’re introduced to our main character, Jane Thorne (Georgina Campbell), a police officer who witnesses her husband (also a police officer) getting shot by the Satanic Slasher at a traffic stop. She then dedicates herself to trying to find him and stop him from killing any more people.
It’s entertaining enough that Jane is chasing him the whole movie, but aggravating at the same time. There are multiple points where the killer should’ve been caught, still, for some reason, either because of her poor choices or no one taking the matter seriously, he keeps escaping, running to different places to get the information and materials he needs for his grand plan, and no one is the wiser. Not to mention the guy leaves so much evidence behind at every crime scene.
By the middle of the movie, The Slasher already had around 40 kills, so why couldn’t any department across the Midwest identify this man and have people watch out for him?
It’s only practically at the end that Jane can convince everyone else that the Satanic Slasher had been Richard Joshua Reeves. A previously convicted mass murderer, who just so happened to be declared dead in prison, used the same rhetoric and symbols as the Satanic Slasher, and looks the same, is somehow not taken into account by anyone but Officer Thorne?
Jane is as much of a Mary Sue as one could get in a horror movie, and there’s minimal character development outside of her relentless pursuit of this guy.
Her motivation is her husband’s death at the hands of the Slasher, yet after the first ten minutes he’s never mentioned again. If that event was as important to Jane, you’d expect it to stay connected to her search or influence her life afterward in some way. Instead, it feels like he only exists to push Jane into the situation at the beginning, and then the story acts as if he never mattered beyond that.
Despite how terrible the story was and how one-dimensional everyone was, the movie was great in terms of effects and gore.
Kill after kill after kill, the Slasher was relentless the entire time, which helped offset how bad the plot was progressing. The cinematography wasn’t half bad either, but not good enough to gloat about.
The little music the film featured fit okay where it was put; presumably, they were made for the film, so there weren’t any noteworthy songs, like how “28 Years Later: The Blood Temple” had Duran Duran tunes in it.
Overall, an incredibly mediocre movie whose only pro was the gore and killing. But it still gets outclassed by other “purely” gore-esque movies like “The Terrifier.”
A solid 5/10, not terrible, but not worth watching more than once.
