Gavin Polone’s Psycho Killer is gruesome and gory, sure - but also stale and, somehow (gulp), boring. And that might be the most damning indictment of all. The film commits horror’s ultimate sin: it becomes a yawn-inducing chore. At just an hour and 20 minutes, that’s almost impressive in the worst possible way. The problems here are many, but the biggest is its total lack of originality. There’s nothing fresh, clever, or even mildly interesting going on in the story - which wouldn’t necessarily be a dealbreaker if the execution were sharp. But this isn’t a taut, nerve-shredding cat-and-mouse thriller (as advertised). Instead, it’s a head-scratching viewing experience where almost every element feels lackluster. The performances are phoned in, the tension is nonexistent, and the plotting feels like a rough draft no one bothered to rewrite. Then there’s the CGI. Some of the blood splatter effects are so distractingly bad they pull you out entirely. The titular psycho killer himself looks as generic as humanly possible, like someone typed “make me a hulking masked serial killer” into an algorithm and called it a day. Character motivations swing wildly scene-to-scene, plot holes pop up like whack-a-mole, and the editing? Yikes. You can’t help but feel there must be a story behind this movie’s production and post-production that explains the glaring inconsistencies. As for the positives, well… it is gritty, and there’s a bit of fun to be had - especially during a bizarre satanist-club side quest. There’s a twist at the end too, though calling it a “positive” is generous. It’s less a reveal and more an exclamation point on the nonsense that came before it.