‘He’s the last cop you’ll ever meet’
PsychoCop – aka Psycho Cop – is a 1989 American slasher horror film written and directed by Wallace Potts (Tales of the Unliving and the Undead), noted for its similarities to the previous year’s Maniac Cop. It was produced by Jessica Rains and Cassian Elwes (Burying the Ex; Jack’s Back; White of the Eye).
A sequel, PsychoCop 2, followed in 1993.
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Main cast:
Robert R. Shafer (The Shadowman; Helen Keller vs. Nightwolves; Zombeavers), Jeff Qualle, Linda West, Cindy Guyer, Dan Campbell, Palmer Lee Todd, Greg Joujon-Roche.
Plot:
A pair of lost newlyweds stumble onto the site of a ritualistic murder, and are killed by Joe Vickers, a corrupt police officer who is also a Satanist.
The next day, three couples travel to a secluded mansion that they have rented, and are given a tour by the property’s caretaker, who is later murdered by Vickers. Upon noticing the caretaker’s disappearance, the couples go looking for him, and encounter Vickers, who reassures them by claiming that the caretaker had an accident, and is now recovering in the hospital. That night, Zack leaves to get beer, and is slain by Vickers.
Vickers proceeds to butcher Eric, Julie, and Sarah. Doug and Laura realize that Vickers is the culprit, and are chased into the forest, where they are found by a pair of policemen, Chris and Bradley. Before being killed by Vickers, the officers reveal that he is really Gary Henley, a discharged psychiatric patient who has somehow infiltrated the California Police Department.
Laura is pursued by Vickers to a clearing containing the crucified bodies of Zack, Julie, Eric, and Sarah. Laura shoots Vickers with his own sidearm, but he is unaffected, only being felled when he has a sharp log thrown through him by Doug.
Emergency services greet Laura and Doug at the mansion as Vickers recovers, and a newscast announces that further evidence indicates that he is actually an escaped psychopathic serial killer named Ted Warnicky.
Reviews:
” …a fun little movie and if you are looking for a nice brainless slasher film that doesn’t make you think too hard then you should give this movie a shot.” Todd Martin, HorrorNews.net
“Routine slasher flick that’s trying to be a riff on William Lustig’s Maniac Cop but instead ends up as a poorly acted and weakly penned misfire. The acting is absolutely dire, the script is excruciatingly inept, shamelessly rehashing every horror movie cliché in the book…” Doctor Obrero, Digital Retribution
” …completely lifeless, homogenized fare” Scott Aaron Stine, The Gorehound’s Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s
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” …Psycho Cop isn’t a badly made movie but it hasn’t got anything you haven’t already seen done a hundred times before (the final girl even finds all her friend’s bodies arranged artistically in a protracted finale), and, normally, I can get off on the lethal predictability of such fare, but, this flick really took the biscuit.” JA Kerswell, Hysteria Lives!
Choice dialogue:
Officer Joe Vickers: “Shouldn’t run from the police!”
Officer Joe Vickers: “You have the right to remain… silent!”
Cast and characters:
- Robert R. Shafer as Officer Joe Vickers/Gary Henley/Ted Warnicky
- Jeff Qualle as Doug
- Palmer Lee Todd as Laura
- Dan Campbell as Eric
- Cindy Guyer as Julie
- Linda West as Sarah
- Greg Joujon-Roche as Zack
- Bruce Melena as Officer Bradley
- Glenn Steelman as Officer Chris
- Julie Araskog as Dead Woman
- Denise Hartman as Barbara/Cop #3
- David L. Zeisler as Greg/Cop #4
