Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Pendleton in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture courtesy of twentieth Century Studios © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Opening in theaters on February 20 is ‘Psycho Killer,’ directed by Gavin Polone and starring Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Logan Miller, Grace Dove, and Malcolm McDowell.
Launch Date: Feb 20, 2026
Run Time: 1 hr 32 min
Price range: $10,000,000
Associated Article: Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell Speak New Horror Comedy ‘Chilly Storage’
Preliminary Ideas
A scene from twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture courtesy of twentieth Century Studios © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Filmed in 2023 and accumulating mud since then, ‘Psycho Killer’ boasts a rising star in Georgina Campbell, a script by ‘Seven’ scribe Andrew Kevin Walker, and the backing of producers behind movies like ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Weapons.’
So how did this film go so horribly off-course? Touted as a type of serial killer epic, the movie is as generic as its title and gives nothing in the way in which of suspense or real chills. Using style tropes that return to the Eighties, ‘Psycho Killer’ fails to do something new with them and even lacks something in the way in which of actually surprising kills.
Story and Path
A scene from twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture courtesy of twentieth Century Studios © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
At first, ‘Psycho Killer’ looks like it would take an attention-grabbing tack: the nation itself is being terrorized by a assassin who has gruesomely and randomly dispatched greater than 15 folks throughout six states, with each native and federal authorities baffled. A lot of the opening act is informed from the viewpoint of the killer (James Preston Rogers), dubbed by the media because the Satanic Slasher as a result of pentagrams and demonic writings the masked monster leaves at his crime scenes.
However nothing too exceptional is finished with the thought of a type of nationwide hysteria introduced on by a single killer, and the viewpoint begins to shift to that of Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell), a Kansas state trooper who misplaced her husband, additionally a trooper, to the Satanic Slasher in a cold-blooded daytime taking pictures that Jane herself witnessed.
Regardless of official makes an attempt to wave Jane off the case, she doggedly pursues it on her personal and chases the killer throughout the nation, whereas he continues his homicide spree and pursues his final agenda. That is the place the film runs into critical issues on all fronts: there is no such thing as a urgency to both the Slasher or Jane’s missions, and the movie’s lackadaisical pacing solely reinforces the turgid, repetitive nature of the narrative. One scene midway by way of – during which Jane briefly confronts the Slasher – is solely ridiculous as a result of he might slaughter her as simply as he kills everybody else, however permits her to flee solely as a result of the film must fill one other 45 minutes or so.
James Preston Rogers as Psycho Killer in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture courtesy of twentieth Century Studios © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The identical could possibly be stated for the Slasher’s stopover on the property of a rich Satanist (Malcolm McDowell), which serves no actual goal besides to point out some cultists getting bare in a black mass. As for the killer’s final plan, it’s as half-formed and ludicrous as anything that occurs within the film.
‘Psycho Killer’ goes by way of such generic, inventory tropes – the movie even implies that heavy metallic music could have influenced the Slasher (sure, that outdated chestnut) – that we discovered ourselves questioning if one thing was going to flip the entire thing on its head and make the film into some type of ‘meta’ touch upon the style itself. However no, ‘Psycho Killer’ gives up nothing of the kind, plodding to a weary end that makes much less and fewer sense because it will get there. Even the kills are uninteresting, with the Slasher primarily swinging giant objects into folks’s torsos or heads as gouts of CG blood squirt into the air.
Solid and Performances
Georgina Campbell as Jane Archer in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture courtesy of twentieth Century Studios © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Georgina Campbell is one thing of an up-and-coming scream queen who has acquitted herself properly in different style movies like ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Chilly Storage.’ However whereas she tries valiantly right here, the story lets her down and makes her right into a one-note hero and vessel for exposition. The truth that virtually not one of the males within the movie appear to take Jane critically solely provides to the insult.
James Preston Rogers actually has an imposing bodily presence and a voice as deep because the vaults of hell itself, however the Slasher in his lengthy black coat and radiation masks lacks something resembling a character and has a muddled again story which will have at the least been partially left on the reducing room flooring. Malcolm McDowell is a legend, after all, however all he does right here is chew the surroundings for a couple of minutes earlier than exiting abruptly.
Last Ideas
James Preston Rogers as Psycho Killer in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture by Eric Zachanowich. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
‘Psycho Killer’ is directed by Gavin Polone, who has labored far more ceaselessly as a producer and may maybe maintain that job: his path doesn’t exhibit any really feel for creating a very terrifying environment or sense of impending doom. As for Andrew Kevin Walker, we’ve to marvel what occurred to the author who gave us the good ‘Seven’ all these years in the past.
That was a film that had one thing to say, together with three expertly conceived characters. However ‘Psycho Killer,’ which appears positioned as a throwback to the serial killer movies of the Eighties, has nothing to say about that period of horror cinema and nothing new to supply about this longstanding archetype itself. Because the tune of the identical identify (which doesn’t present up right here) as soon as stated, ‘run, run, run away’ from this misfire.
‘Psycho Killer’ receives a rating of 30 out of 100.
James Preston Rogers as Psycho Killer in twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’. Picture by Eric Zachanowich. © 2025 twentieth Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
What’s the plot of ‘Psycho Killer’?
Following the brutal homicide of her husband, a Kansas freeway patrol officer (Georgina Campbell) units out to trace down the perpetrator. Because the hunt progresses, she comes to understand the person accountable (James Preston Rogers) is a sadistic serial killer, and the depth of his psychological depravity and his sinister agenda is extra twisted than anybody might have imagined.
Who’s within the solid of ‘Psycho Killer’?
- Georgina Campbell as Jane Archer
- James Preston Rogers because the Psycho Killer
- Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Pendleton
- Logan Miller as Marvin
- Grace Dove as Agent Becky Collins
- Aaron Merke as Leonard Wilkes
- Nigel Shawn Williams as Jane’s Father
twentieth Century Studios’ ‘Psycho Killer’ opens in theaters on February twentieth.
Motion pictures Like ‘Psycho Killer’
Purchase Tickets: ‘Psycho Killer’ Film Showtimes