From Birth.Movies.Death: Steven Kostanski is one of many current filmmakers taking heavy cues from genre entertainment of the 1980s. But while many of this generation pay thuddingly reverent homage to greats like John Carpenter and David Cronenberg, Kostanski is more interested in the ridiculous and wildly ambitious fun of Full Moon Features and Empire International Pictures. His latest film PG (Psycho Goreman), goes even further, bringing the spirit of Saturday morning nonsense like He-Man and Super Sentai into an R-rated movie. Here's the synopsis: PG (Psycho Goreman) introduces emerging stars Nita-Josée Hanna and Owen Myre as Mimi and Luke, a perpetually bickering sister / brother duo who unwittingly resurrect an ancient alien overlord (Matt Ninaber) who's been entombed in their backyard. They nickname the malevolent creature Psycho Goreman (or PG for short) who thanks to their possession of a magical amulet is forced to obey their childish whims. It appears the same goes for the rest of the galaxy as PG’s reappearance on Earth draws the attention of interstellar friends and fiends from across the cosmos. It isn’t long before a rogues' gallery of galactic combatants converge on the strange realm of small-town suburbia. As you'd expect from all that and the director of Manborg, the trailer looks bonkers: Obviously, the Spookies-level variety of entirely practical monsters is the star attraction here, especially when you consider they're called things like "Dark Scream," "Death Trapper," "Kortex," and so on. The movie looks insanely fun - how can you not love a surly monster playing drums? - but honestly, I'm just as excited about the story, which sounds unconventionally heartwarming as hell. Says Kostanski: What would it be like to have your own monster? As a kid, I was mesmerized by the relationship between John Connor and the T-800 in Terminator 2 and the way this relatable kid could suddenly have a badass villain as his pal. I would fantasize about hanging out with the likes of Skeletor, Megatron, Cobra Commander, and every other Saturday morning cartoon villain. These characters always interested me more than the traditional heroes. The whole thing feels like something like The Monster Squad blended with Star Kid, or indeed Kostanski's own references Masters of the Universe and Beastmaster 2, with a surfeit of awesome original monsters and head rips and shit. If Kostanski can replicate that childlike wish-fulfillment fantasy for an R-rated audience, boy I'm into it. PG (Psycho Goreman) premieres at SXSW, appropriately, on Friday the 13th. We'll leave you with an exclusive trading-card image of one of the film's monsters, "Judicator": And the film's official Facebook page with some more character images, etc.: https://www.facebook.com/PsychoGoreman/
Anyone one here watched this yet? Got to say I was really looking forward to this, but was massively disappointed. Got a feeling this is gonna be the story of 2021!
The effects were a lot of fun and there are a few solid laughs throughout, but I couldn't engage with the characters or what was going on at all. The things that worked about it are things that should have been secondary. I didn't hate it, but I'd never watch it again. It'd be nice to see one of these nostalgia movies that puts the effort into their script as well. For what it's worth, I didn't especially care about Turbo Kid either, but if you're into that you'll probably love this one.
It’s the same problem with all of these projects, like the earlier Astron 6 films (Fathers Day, Manborg etc). As trailers, they are fun as hell, but as full lenght movies, the joke quickly gets old.
I thought it was fun. Basically a kids movie with gore. Has character. But I do agree that while it is fun, one viewing is good enough.
Rented it last night and have to echo a few of the sentiments above - for how much of a low-budget flick this is there's lots of great and fun practical effects and creatures, but as an all around movie it's not well executed at all. The story is messy, the characters mostly grating or annoying (and I get this is supposed to be about an intergalactic killer being from space who's met his match in the form of a bossy and mean 12-year-old girl, but it's all at a level that if you don't immediately latch on you're going to be struggling with the character as a viewer throughout), and it doesn't allow anything to breath or work itself out; it just jumps from set-piece to set-piece with no real connecting tissue. If you've liked Kostanski's work or earlier Astron-6 flicks you'll probably enjoy it somewhat more, but if not it's unfortunately more of the same.
I watched it with my 8 year old son last night - don't tell my wife It was silly fun and we enjoyed it for what it was. My favorite parts were PG telling his background story.
Fuck me dead that little girl in this is so fucking annoying. I'm trying to watch this now and am very much struggling. Edit: and at about 40 mins in I've switched it off lol. Yeah this one's not for me.
I agree. She sucks. "Bye-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The movie has some good FX, but the characters are garbage.
