Psycho Killer (2026)

​“Psycho Killer” stars Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Grace Dove, Logan Miller, and Malcolm McDowell.  Released on February 20, 2026, the film has a patrol officer pursuing a sadistic serial killer.

The film featured the directorial debut of Gavin Polone, known for producing films such as “8mm”, “Panic Room”, “Primeval”, and “Zombieland”.  The year of twisted masked killers started pretty rough back in February, with the “Strangers” concluding its bloody rampage on a rather unsatisfying note.  Seriously, that final chapter of this experimental trilogy was anything but eventful.  But that hadn’t stopped there, as we had another masked psychopath striving to elevate the terror of the genre and audience’s thirst for blood, hopefully more so than the masked “Strangers”.  This new killer came from first-time director Gavin Polone and writer Andrew Kevin Walker in their first collaboration since 1999’s “8mm”.  This latest horror film seemed to hearken back to the old-school mystery horror films akin to “Seven”, which Walker also wrote, based on the marketing, or lack thereof.  If that’s the case, this could mean that we would be in for a pretty gnarly treat that the masked strangers failed to deliver.  At least, that’s what I thought before the reviews arrived.  With that said, let’s dive into this mystery and see if it’s worth going psycho for.

The story follows Jane Archer (Campbell), a highway police officer from Kansas whose state trooper husband has been brutally murdered.  This tragedy sends Jane on a grueling journey to find the person responsible for her husband’s death.  She eventually finds that the suspect she’s hunting is a dangerous serial killer known as the Satanic Slasher (Rogers), a mentally depraved maniac infamous for murdering his victims in grisly fashion.  Knowing how dangerous the Satanic Slasher is, Jane must decipher the clues to end the killer’s murder spree before his sinister agenda comes to fruition.

This was one of the movies I heard about from only its trailer a while ago.  No joke.  I only watched one trailer of this film and hadn’t heard much else about it since.  Either I haven’t been watching much television to see its commercials, or they haven’t put out any TV spots at all to hide its additional "surprises".  Regardless, its trailer gave me some shred of hope that I would get something out of this slasher film, especially after the pain I experienced from watching “The Strangers - Chapter 3”.  However, that hope seemed to have been dashed upon hearing the surprisingly scathing reviews for it.  Given Polone’s experience with these types of horror films, you would think that this would be another decent hit for the genre, but I guess you can’t win them all, even if your previous movies are decent.  As a result, I decided to skip “Psycho Killer” during its theatrical run and wait until it was available to watch at home.  I took that approach for “Bride Hard” last year, so why shouldn’t I do the same for “Psycho Killer”?

Upon watching this killing spree unfold, I immediately realized I didn’t regret my decision to save it for streaming.  It had some noticeable intent in its horrific subject matter and cinematography that kept me mostly intrigued.  Besides that, “Psycho Killer” is anything but psychotic, relying mostly on narrative tropes seen in other familiar cat-and-mouse thrillers to carry its murky, underwhelming premise.  It looks and feels like anything Gavin Polone and Andrew Kevin Walker had done in the past, ranging from its down-to-earth crime thrills to the disturbingly violent content that’s icky enough to make us turn away in disgust.  Of course, it isn’t without its metal-head soundtrack, which calls back to the action thrillers of the 2000s, infusing its nostalgic scenery.  However, it just didn’t have the proper impact from those projects to make it as unsettling as it wanted it to be.  Rather than taking inspiration from these masked-killer thrillers to refreshingly explore its dark themes, the film is a bland, occasionally dumb, and gloomy copycat of that concept and nothing else.

Gavin Polone certainly has ideas that translate to the screen as a producer, with some being more tolerable than others.  Unfortunately, his idea for “Psycho Killer” was one such instance in which his directorial vision just fell apart after the first kill.  The only aspect I can credit Polone with is that he knew how to frame specific shots, both from Jane’s scenes and from the Satanic Slasher’s cross-country road trip.  There were a few moments in Magnus Jønck’s cinematography that were actually framed pretty well for its bleakly unnerving tone, almost as if I was watching a horror film from Neon.  Sadly, this is a 20th Century Studios film, meaning that its commercialization is bound to overshadow that intention.  Think of “Longlegs,” but it was distributed by Warner Bros. While well-intentioned in its framework, Polone easily undermined that mood with his mishandling of the suspense and draggy pacing.  Even the slo-mo sequences were more phoned in than stylistically gritty, and there’s one death scene that I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be intentionally funny or not.  It’s one of the films whose vision lacks a coherent balance between craft and tonal intrigue, an element that Polone should improve on if he’s willing to direct another project.

As for Andrew Kevin Walker, I would say he’s in the same situation as Polone, but as a writer.  He has ideas in his writing that worked a bit better than others, and “Psycho Killer” was not his best idea.  Regarding Walker’s screenplay, “Psycho Killer” functions in the same vein as other serial killer thrillers, but in a way that’s both subpar and occasionally idiotic.  It not only centers on the cat-and-mouse chase across the entire country, but also Jane’s trauma stemming from her husband’s death at the hands of the Satanic Slasher.  So, it is also another revenge thriller now that I thought about it.  Unfortunately, Walker struggled to make any of those aspects interesting or even twisty.  It’s a fundamental, cliched, and downright dismal road trip that would’ve been more fun if Jane’s partner were an angel sent from God.  Come to think of it, that would make for a more enticing premise compared to what we got.  Combined with its subpar dialogue and forgettable antagonist, you get a boring, suspense-free reflection on the horrors of satanism that’s more on the murky and less on the psychological disturbance.  Speaking of murky, the visuals were very lackluster, particularly the CGI blood, which didn’t mesh well with the muted lighting.  While the film didn’t go all out with the gore, its effects are another reason why CGI isn’t the perfect replacement for practical effects.

The cast also didn’t do much to elevate their performances beyond the run-of-the-mill concept.  However, the only actor who showed any effort was the one chasing the masked killer: Georgina Campbell.  I've heard she’s the only positive aspect of the film, and after watching it, I don’t blame them.  Despite her character’s formulaic structure, Campbell delivered a performance that respectively highlighted Jane’s traumatic condition and determination to avenge her husband.  I still think Campbell’s performance in “Barbarian” was better, as there were a few moments in “Psycho Killer” when her line delivery sounded a bit rough.  But she has proven to be another actor whose efforts were fine enough to carry most of the projects they're in.  James Preston Rogers, a former professional wrestler, also made an okay effort to provide a menacing, mentally unstable presence in the Satanic Slasher.  However, other than being a fan of Satin and having a kink for drinking “Priest Juice”, there’s nothing really terrifying about this killer that I would remember for years to come.  Also, Malcolm McDowell is in the film as the leader of a Satanist cult.  Yeah, I don’t know why either…

Overall, “Psycho Killer” lacks the psychotic edge of its run-of-the-mill, dreary premise to slaughter the competition in the thriller genre.  Despite the intentions presented in its cinematography and concept, the film is nothing more than a basic, dull, and tediously muted hunt that’s more about putting its cliches on autopilot than providing unnerving terror.  This could’ve been another solid collaboration between Gavin Polone and writer Andrew Kevin Walker that hearkens back to their previous unsettling thrillers of years past, including “Seven”.  What we got instead is a mishmash of familiar ideas that failed to elevate its grisly nature to exciting heights, resulting in another forgettable murder case that’s best left alone.  Regarding Polone’s dreary direction, the film’s lackluster terror, subpar screenplay, and murky visuals, it’s better if you run, run, run, run, run, run, run away from this killing spree for good.

D