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 Gorman 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.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3643436/review-psycho-goreman-puts-emphasis-goofy-gore-fun-post-week-1-18-21/
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