Are you looking for a delightfully fun or devilishly dark horror movie to kick off your weekend? There’s no better place to start than with 22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend. This collection takes you from a pack of ravenous wolves lying in wait under a broken ski-lift to a terrifying Hitchhiker, a horny T-Rex and a stomach-churning glory hole.
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1. STRAIT-JACKET (1964)
By Agnes Sajti
William Castle’s 1964 B-film, Strait-Jacket, is a psychological horror that follows Lucy Harbin – Joan Crawford, in the worst wig of her career – who has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital, having decapitated her husband and his mistress in front of her three-year-old child. But as Harbin moves back in with her daughter, Carol (Diane Baker), a series of murders once more haunt the town.
As horrifying as all this sounds, Castle’s film is more camp-horror than shocker, primarily due to the film’s low budget and cartoonish, bloodless beheadings. But this only adds to the fun of Castle’s horror romp. Written by Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho, Strait-Jacket could be described as Psycho’s less-scary twin, despite some visual shocks and a twisty ending. Yet it quickly forgoes its horror in favour of the ridiculous reasonably early on, marking it out from Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece.
Strait-Jacket follows the so-called hagsploitation trend set by Robert Aldrich’s cult classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). This horror subgenre predominantly featured a formerly glamorous older woman who was mentally unbalanced, joyously tormenting all those around her.
Undoubtedly, Joan Crawford proved an excellent choice for the lead, elevating the film with her delightful performance. However, her performance also carries a hint of sadness, as the parallels between Crawford’s declining career and her character’s inability to be taken seriously by society haunt each scene.
Throughout the film, Castle tries to surround the narrative with discussions on trauma, internal pain and personality disorder to varying degrees of success. But in the end, Strait-Jacket can’t help but succumb to Castle’s B-Movie splendour, and while that may not lead to anything ground-breaking, the ride is certainly fun.
2. WILLARD (1971)
Willard (1971) has long been overlooked as a classic. Yet, Daniel Mann’s film is one of the most creative, complex and ingenious horror flicks of the early 70s. Its disappearance and lack of critical assessment were mainly due to the film vanishing during the 1980s, with many assuming it had been eaten away by rats in a dusty garage somewhere. But Willard survived and was finally released on Blu-ray in 2017, alongside its utterly bizarre sequel Ben (1972).
Taking a cue from Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Mann’s movie would, like Hitchcock’s, explore the concepts of sexual repression, loneliness and isolation. Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison) is an introverted, socially awkward young man living with his overbearing and controlling mother. His repressed sexuality is evident throughout as he struggles to form meaningful connections with others, leading to a profound sense of loneliness and frustration.
However, unlike Bates, Willard’s manipulative and controlling mother is alive at the start of the film, and the vast house they share is a maze of psychological torment for the young man as he attempts to navigate his own needs while his mother demands he attends to hers. In many ways, Willard’s relationship with his mother feels like a prequel to the events of Psycho, but unlike Norman Bates, Willard’s need for control and freedom takes a different turn.
Willard does not become a serial killer dressed in his mother’s clothes; instead, he befriends rodents that offer love and companionship at a price. Willard is not evil, nor is he as psychologically damaged as Norman Bates; he is lonely, nervous and oppressed. Here, Mann’s film explores toxic masculinity, power and control in relation to Willard’s repressed sexuality. Willard works in a low-level position at his office, facing constant humiliation and mistreatment by his superiors and coworkers, brilliantly led by Ernest Borgnine. He is seen as “a mummy’s boy”, “a weakling”, and “over-sensitive” by the men around him, while females treat him as a mere boy.
As Willard befriends the rats surrounding his gothic mansion, he finds solace and companionship free from human judgment and power, enabling him to wreak havoc on those persecuting him. Mann’s movie tiptoes around the question of whether Willard is gay. Yet it also explores the feelings of so many young men who hide their authentic selves as they navigate a heteronormative world. However, as with many early queer horrors, the movie’s final scenes are devastating, as young Willard’s journey to self-acceptance is cut short as he attempts to move away from the family of rats who initially gave him freedom.
Willard was remade in 2003 with Crispin Blunt in the central role, but it’s Mann’s delicate psychological horror that shines through, as Davison skillfully explores the psyche of a lost and lonely boy seeking freedom, liberation, and escape in all the wrong places.
3. THE HITCHER (1986)
Get ready for a horrifying ride with director Robert Harmon’s and screenwriter Eric Red’s killer thriller, starring the late, inimitable Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) as the hitchhiker from hell, in a career-defining role that Empire described as ‘The best Hannibal Lector that never was’, who terrorises innocent drivers as they drive along the deserted Midwest highways.
On a long-distance drive across the deserted Midwest highways, young Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) stops for a hitchhiker waiting by the roadside. But his thoughts of helping a human in need are blown wide apart as it soon becomes apparent that John Ryder (Hauer) is a relentless serial killer. Framed by the cold-blooded murderer for a string of slayings, his only help comes from a caring Truckstop waitress as they attempt to flee from both the law and the psychopath. Often copied, but never equalled, The Hitcher (1986) isn’t just one of the best thrillers of the 1980s; it’s a tour de force in gripping action from the first scene to the last.
4. FLUX GOURMET (2022)
Art is in the eye of the beholder, whether it be a bed surrounded by junk, a meticulous oil painting depicting a historical scene, or a deconstructed cottage pie coated in a silky, thick Jus. Over the years, Peter Strickland has deconstructed art, asking us to explore the absurdity, diversity, and horror of the world around us through genre-defying films that engage with art in its broadest context. He has pointed his lens at fashion, sound and sex, and in Flux Gourmet, he slices his way through the world of haute cuisine and bodily digestion.
Surrounded by his regular troupe of performers while welcoming a grungy Asa Butterfield to the clan, Strickland’s Flux Gourmet is a bizarre, absurd and delightfully strange journey into the world of culinary theatre. Here, digestion and discomfort are just as important as the food on the table as we join the Sonic Catering Institute, led by the flamboyant Jan Stevens (Gwendoline Christie).
From Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed) writhing around naked covered in red sauce as Billy and Lamina (Ariane Labed) use various sonic instruments to create jarring sound to the foul stench that emanates from journalist Stones (Makis Papadimitriou) as his digestive system emits loud gaseous outbursts, Flux Gourmet is vile, creative and downright bizarre from the opening scene to the last. As with all of Strickland’s work, Flux Gourmet may not appeal to everyone’s tastes. But for those willing to dine at its table, it’s a delicious, magical mystery tour of art, horror, food and bodily gas.
5. DEAD SHACK (2017)
Based on the classic cabin-in-the-woods premise, Dead Shack laces its zombie gore with gloriously dark humour. Fourteen-year-old Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood) is about to escape his volatile home life for a weekend in the woods with his best friend Colin (Gabriel LaBelle), his older sister Summer (Lizzie Boys), their dad Roger (Donavon Stinson) and his new girlfriend Lisa (Valerie Tian). The trip is about escape, with their log cabin serving as a sanctuary of relaxation, card games, and teenage hormonal energy. However, not far up the road, a doting mother protects her unique family at all costs as family mealtimes become a sinister game of cat-and-mouse.
Dead Shack gloriously unpicks the family unit, openly challenging the notion that adults know best by placing its teen leads in charge. Here, its intelligent screenplay hums with brilliantly timed comedy while the blood and gore flow through creative, practical effects. The result is a genuinely engaging and entertaining zombie horror full of dry humour and Canadian charm.
6. FROZEN (2010)
If you hate ski lifts and think they are the most dangerous contraptions ever made, or have a deep-seated fear of wolves, Frozen may be a step too far in your weekend viewing choices! Adam Green’s Frozen is one of the most nerve-shredding films released during 2010, and a movie where you find yourself shrieking at the screen in horror as you watch three twenty-somethings fight for their lives on a stalled ski-lift as the night draws in.
Joe (Shawn Ashmore), Dan (Kevin Zegers), and his girlfriend Parker (Emma Bell) are enjoying a weekend of skiing at a New England resort before their fun turns into gut-wrenching horror as a late-night trip down the mountain becomes a matter of life and death.
As they sit alone in a swinging metal cradle, their conversations echo the terrors that await them as they attempt to figure out the best escape methods before they freeze: do they jump? Attempt to climb up to the cables, or sit tight and wait for help? There are no simple answers as you watch Adam Green’s taut, horrifying, brilliantly performed thriller and horror unfold. Frozen was largely overlooked upon its release, yet Green’s movie is a tour de force in terror that will leave you questioning whether to ever get on a ski lift again!
22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend
7. THE RETURN (2020)
We all love a haunted house movie, right? On first appearance, BJ Vernot’s new film would appear to fall directly into the traditional haunted house genre; after all, here we have a young man, Roger (Richard Harmon), returning to his family home following the sudden death of his father, where he is greeted by a mysterious apparition that emanates from the walls.
However, BJ Vernot’s film is not what it initially appears to be, as it throws us a curveball of epic proportions. Much like Ghosts of War, The Return is a sci-fi thriller in supernatural clothing. I am not about to spoil the twists, but as with many films that attempt to transcend genre boundaries, there are a few problems: from a twist that can be seen coming to a final act that descends into farce. Despite these flaws, there is much to admire and enjoy, and The Return is creative and engaging, if not perfect.
8. GRETA (2019)
Neil Jordan (Breakfast on Pluto, The Butcher Boy and Company of Wolves) is well known for dovetailing adult fantasy/horror with contemporary social themes. However, with Greta, Jordan opts for a far more mainstream thriller/horror that delights in parts but struggles to sustain the tension of the first two acts as we approach the third.
Frances (Chloë Moretz) has recently moved to New York from Boston following her mother’s death, and there she works as a waitress while enjoying New York life with her flatmate Erica. However, when Frances finds a misplaced bag on the subway, her life is about to change forever when she returns it to a lonely widow named Greta (Isabelle Huppert). But what begins as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a deadly dance of obsession and control.
Greta is bathed in moments of glorious tension built upon a Hitchcock-inspired story. Here, Moretz and Huppert truly shine as their characters enter a deadly game of cat and mouse that twists and turns against a Manhattan backdrop.
22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend
9. THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR (2020)
Any mainstream horror that chooses child abduction and abuse as its main story walks a fine line. After all, how do you couple the true horror of child abuse and kidnapping with classic horror scares without becoming distasteful in the process?
Many films, such as The Girl Next Door, have fallen short of this balance over the years. However, The Boy Behind the Door navigates this fine line skillfully, even if the film’s final act sadly resorts to a more traditional horror template. But, the ending aside, there is much to admire in David Charbonier and Justin Powell’s claustrophobic horror-thriller, including the performances of its young leads.
The opening half of Charbonier and Powell’s film is full of tension, creating a genuinely uncomfortable atmosphere that is only intensified by the lack of information available to us. However, within its final act, The Boy Behind the Door stumbles as it adopts a cat-and-mouse slasher aesthetic that avoids the significant issues raised earlier.
10. VICIOUS FUN (2020)
Canada has a long history of great horror, from Scanners to Black Christmas. Canadian horrors have long challenged the boundaries of the horror genre, helping to redefine what it offers audiences. Director Cody Calahan’s Vicious Fun continues this trend by mixing classic slasher horror with tongue-in-cheek 80s-inspired humour. The result is a film that delivers exactly what it promises – vicious fun.
Embracing themes last seen in Shudder’s underrated Monster Party while lacing the horror with delightfully timed comedy, Vicious Fun is a neatly wrapped gift of 80s nostalgia, fun and slasher gore; it is a perfect late-night horror/comedy to enjoy with a large coke and a bucket of popcorn as you count the references to every 80s flick it so lovingly pays homage to.
11. THE VIGIL (2020)
The Vigil is rooted within the Jewish tradition of someone sitting with the body of a recently deceased community member before their burial. The person is called a ‘shomer.’ Their responsibilities include reciting ‘Tehillim’ until the dead person is ready for burial. This act helps calm the spirit as it leaves the body, ensuring it travels the right path.
Yakov (Dave Davis) opted to leave the Orthodox Jewish community following a personal tragedy, his life a mix of post-traumatic stress and financial pressure as he attempts to rebuild his sense of belonging. Following a group support meeting for people in a similar position, Yakov is asked to conduct a Vigil for a recently departed man with his former Rabbi, who insists this is a one-off request because the agreed Shomer has disappeared. Reluctantly, Yakov agrees, but as he steps into the house, he has no idea of the terrors awaiting him as he faces his demons and an ancient sleeping evil.
Keith Thomas’ debut film slowly builds its tension, the dimly lit streets of Borough Park echoing the eerie residential silence of The Exorcist. Thomas plunges his audience into classic supernatural terror while exploring supernatural themes from a different religious angle than many similar pictures.
12. DUPLICATE ‘JONATHAN’ (2018)
Slipping under the radar at various Film festivals, Duplicate, also known as Jonathan, is a sci-fi/thriller gem. Bill Oliver’s film, written alongside Gregory Davis and Peter Nickowitz, explores a range of themes more commonly found in horror classics, from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to The Outer Limits.
In essence, it is a tale of two separate personalities inhabiting the same body, one studious, organised and controlled and the other energetic, free-thinking and rebellious. But life has a way of fucking things up when you live on such a fine and delicate balance, and Oliver asks us what would happen if one of these personalities became romantically involved without the other’s knowledge or permission.
Ansel Elgort beautifully encapsulates the trials and tribulations of both John and Jonathan, building audience empathy for the two unique personas on display. Unfortunately for John and Jonathan, sex and love will ultimately lead to separation and distrust, which is deeply problematic when you share the same body.
22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend
13. TAMMY AND THE T-REX
How many movies contain a teenage brain transplant into a mechanical T. Rex, a host of squashed bullies and Paul Walker in a crop top? The answer is only one! Director Stewart Raffill unapologetically capitalises on the post-Jurassic Park fever of 1993 with a horror comedy that is as ridiculous as it is brilliant.
Whether or not Raffill’s movie is called Tammy and the T-Rex or Tanny and the Teenage T-Rex continues to cause debate. But, title aside, this 1994 B-movie is a bizarre, deliciously dark and downright silly movie that gave Paul Walker and Denise Richards their breakout roles.
Tammy and the T-Rex had a tough journey to the screen, its hurried studio re-edit transforming an R-rated comedy-horror into a PG-13 love story. Thankfully, the original version remained intact, and in 2019, the world finally got to see the film Raffill intended.
As a hormonal teenage T. Rex stomps all over the horror-comedy genre, this slice of B-movie heaven will earn a place in your heart, despite its kooky screenplay and dodgy effects. It’s laced with great dark humour and performances that understand the tongue-in-cheek nature of the action on screen. So grab the popcorn and settle in for a roaring good time.
14. GLORIOUS (2022)
Beware the horrors that lurk behind a public toilet glory hole. That simple sentence may make you think Glorious is a queer horror rooted in the notion of cruising, bodily fluids and secretive rendezvous. However, while Glorious does indeed carry queer undertones, its soul lies in the science fiction horror of H.P. Lovecraft.
As Mark Twain once wrote, “When ill luck begins, it does not come in sprinkles, but in showers”, and for Wes (Ryan Kwanten), this statement could not be closer to the truth. We meet Wes in his car and his temporary home as he attempts to deal with the guilt of a recent messy breakup. Sweaty, dirty and smelly, Wes pulls into a small, isolated park with a public toilet for some much-needed TLC. However, as he finds nourishment in a bottle of vodka, his day, week, and year are about to go from bad to worse as he enters the toilet block only to hear a mysterious voice (J.K. Simmons) calling to him from the locked stall next door.
Rebekah McKendry’s creative slice of science fiction/horror cleverly uses its delightfully grungy public toilet setting to explore themes ranging from guilt to isolation to theology. Here, the concept of praying to a gentle, all-knowing God for help during our darkest times is turned on its head in a genuinely engaging slice of sci-fi/horror.
The result is a dark, bold and blood-soaked comedy/horror rooted in concepts of karma and belief. While McKendry’s movie may seem unlikely to work, given its location restrictions and simple premise, it does! This is partly due to Kwanten and Simmons’ outstanding performances, which work alongside Todd Rigney, Joshua Hull, and Ian McKendry’s deliciously dark screenplay. But at its heart, the success comes from Rebekah McKendry’s gloriously lit, grubby location where a man on his knees in puddles of urine and sick makes contact with an omnipotent, toilet-bound god.
22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend
15. DANIEL ISN’T REAL (2019)
What do you get when you take the brooding mystery of Donnie Darko and mix it with the imagery and style of Jacob’s Ladder? The answer is one of the most divisive yet creative horrors of 2019: Daniel Isn’t Real.
Reviews of Adam Egypt Mortimer‘s film, starring Miles Robbins and Patrick Schwarzenegger, were mixed upon its release, with many critics calling it more style than substance, while others argued it presented a damaging portrayal of mental health. However, in my view, Mortimer’s horror should be commended for taking some significant creative risks as it merges psychological terror with supernatural evil.
Daniel Isn’t Real crawls deep under the viewer’s skin, its lasting effect far more potent than the initial viewing. Some may find the content exploitative of mental health and, at times, insensitive. But the absolute terror sits within the supernatural world created by screenwriters Brian DeLeeuw and Adam Egypt Mortimer.
16. PEARL (2022)
Ti West’s clever homage to the 60s and 70s origins of the slasher, X, paid tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, among others, as it explored the foundations and intersections of porn, horror and art. His prequel to X took a remarkably long time to reach British cinemas, mainly due to the pandemic, and sadly, this undoubtedly impacted its eventual release. But for those of us who patiently waited, Pearl was a blood-soaked, technicolour melodrama that quickly earned a place in the Horror Hall of Fame.
Part homage to The Wizard of Oz and part love letter to melodrama horror movies like Joan Crawford’s underrated Strait-Jacket, West’s clever dissection of Corn Belt American horror starring the indomitable Mia Goth and David Corenswet is just as intelligent in its narrative structure and artistic vision as his first outing, as he unpicks the relationship between melodrama, fantasy, rural America and horror.
In the hands of the outstanding Mia Goth, Pearl is a glorious homage to 1930s, 40s, and 50s filmmaking and the birth of the all-American horror flick; after all, The Wizard of Oz, for all its colour and light, carries some pretty brutal scenes (flying monkey’s anyone?), in fact, it could be argued The Wizard of Oz had as much impact on modern horror as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Pearl asks us to explore the foundations of Corn Belt horror through a deliciously lavish homage to a filmmaking style that has long since vanished. Big, bold and bloody brilliant, Pearl is a tongue-in-cheek horror masterpiece.
22 Friday Night Frights to kick start your weekend
17. SLAUGHTERHOUSE RULEZ (2018)
If your parents, no matter how well-meaning, decide to send you to a boarding school named ‘Slaughterhouse’, they plan to rent your room permanently. And if that school, no matter how posh, has a colossal fracking site next door, run!
If only someone had told young Don Wallace (Finn Cole) that, he would have never spent his term fighting monsters with a taste for human flesh. But then he also wouldn’t have met snuff-loving roommate Willoughby Blake (Asa Butterfield), posh girl Clemsie (Hermione Corfield) or the innocent, bullied Wootton (Kit Conner). Meanwhile, the headmaster (Michael Sheen) supplements the school’s finances with dodgy dealings and kickbacks, while housemaster Meredith (Simon Pegg) turns to the bottle.
Ultimately, this creates a highly dysfunctional school environment long before its hidden horrors are revealed. So buckle up for a night of schoolyard terrors, rotten smells, snappy monsters and bloody mortarboards. Just don’t forget the snuff, cricket bats and shin guards; the new school term was never meant to be this mad!
18. I SEE YOU (2019)
Slipping under the radar in 2019, I See You is an accomplished, riveting and eerie family-in-peril thriller with a delightful twist. Every scene of Adam Randell’s overlooked chiller drips suspense and intrigue as debut screenwriter Devon Graye keeps the audience on tenterhooks from the first scene to the last.
I See You shines with originality as we embark on a thrilling rollercoaster ride where nothing is as it first seems. Here, a loving mum, Helen Hunt, her husband Jon Tenney, and their teenage son Judah Lewis find their luxurious home turned upside down in a community fearing the return of a killer from the past.
As events spiral out of control and the truth behind the community’s pain and the family’s torment converge, dark, long-held secrets are brought to light. Also starring Owen Teague, I See You is a hidden gem just waiting for the perfect Friday night in.
19. TROLL (1986)
Troll is not one of the worst movies ever made by a long shot; that title goes to its 1990 sequel. However, Troll had some serious narrative problems, from its confusing mix of Gothic fairy-tale horror and comedy to its low-budget, Gremlins-inspired effects. However, John Carl Buechler’s movie remains a true guilty pleasure despite these flaws. In Buechler’s strange fantasy, we are introduced to the Potter family: Harry Potter Senior (yes, that’s right, Harry Potter!), his wife Anne, teenage son Harry Junior and young daughter Wendy.
The Potters have just moved into a brand new San Francisco apartment building filled with more than a few colourful characters. But just a few hours into their arrival, Wendy is attacked in the basement by a troll who takes her physical form and is determined to create a new troll kingdom.
If all this sounds nuts, it is! Buechler’s movie is a bizarre yet entertaining mix of fantasy, horror and comedy that never quite decides where its heart lies. However, it remains entertaining and unique, all the same, due to the performances of Noah Hathaway, June Lockhart, and Jenny Beck. Released ten months before Critters (1986), Troll bombed at the box office but has since earned a place in the hearts of millions of fans.
20. TURBO KID (2015)
As a film-obsessed teenager of the late 1980s and early 90s, my local video rental store was a magical movie cave filled with wonder and potential. The endless shelves of shiny VHS boxes provided a pick-and-mix heaven as I spent whole afternoons searching for my Saturday night entertainment.
After much deliberation, I would leave the shop, cradling my precious tapes with a large bar of Dairy Milk chocolate for the viewing ahead, my Saturday night sorted. Like many teenagers of my era, I found straight-to-VHS films rich pickings, with their low-budget effects and rushed releases, either striking gold or sinking like a stone.
Turbo Kid bathes its audience in a delightfully retro, VHS-inspired story with lashings of blood and humour. Its synthesised score, BMX bikes, and 80s-inspired horror-comedy take the audience back to those glorious days of fuzzy VHS tapes, set in a post-apocalyptic 1997. Here, global warming has killed off the majority of the human race, and the survivors live in tin sheds and underground bunkers, drinking water made from the juicing of other humans.
In this devilish world, we meet our BMX-riding hero (Munro Chambers), a teenager who scavenges pop culture relics. But the kid’s life is about to change forever when he meets a peculiar girl named Apple and crosses paths with a sadistic gangster named Zeus (Michael Ironside). Turbo Kid embraces retro action, guts and gore with pride while paying homage to the best in ’80s fantasy horror.
21. SUMMONING SYLVIA (2023)
Out, proud and loud, Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse’s gloriously camp horror Summoning Sylvia isn’t going to win any awards. But it will win over the hearts of those who love their comedy/horror coated in glitter.
Mixing the classic haunted house tale with meet-the-in-laws comedy and a tongue-in-cheek homage to The Conjuring franchise, Summoning Sylvia is best consumed with friends, nibbles and a few alcoholic beverages. By bringing together a truly delightful ensemble —including Travis Coles, Michael Urie, Frankie Grande, Noah J. Ricketts, Troy Iwata, and Nicholas Logan —for a bewildering bachelor party, Summoning Sylvia offers us a spooky, devilishly fun weekend getaway.
However, it’s not all camp conversations, horny pizza delivery guys, eyeliner and screams. In the background, the ghost story unfolds, revealing moments of emotion before culminating in its beautiful twist. There is much to love in Taylor and Wyse’s camp creation, and you won’t find a more entertaining queer Saturday night comedy/horror.
22. PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN
To say PG: Psycho Goreman is a delicious 1980s throwback is to understate the brilliance of Steven Kostanski’s physical effects-laden movie. Here, the science fiction worlds of The Terminator and RoboCop collide with the B-movie gore of Troma’s Toxic Avenger and the nostalgia of Turbo Kid. The result is a joyous, dark, creative, and brilliant slice of modern fantasy-horror-comedy.
Our gory adventure opens with 10-year-old livewire Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and her timid older brother Luke (Owen Myre) finding a strange gem in their garden. But this is no ordinary glowing gem; it’s an alien artefact that summons a giant evil blue alien (Matthew Ninaber) from the planet Gygax. His appearance spells destruction for every planet he visits, for he is the demon, the destroyer of worlds, and the bringer of pain. However, he is also controlled by the gem in Mimi’s possession. Quickly realising her power, Mimi’s first act is to rename the beast Psycho Goreman or PG for short, before introducing PG to the delights of suburbia as she plays out her deepest fantasies through the giant alien. But trouble lurks just around the perfectly trimmed hedges as an alien warrior arrives to rid the universe of Psycho Goreman’s evil forever.
Much like Turbo Kid, PG: Psycho Goreman is rooted in the creativity, gore and charm of the straight-to-VHS gem. But beyond the nostalgia, Kostanski’s movie is also a love letter to the physical effects work that CGI has slowly replaced. Everything feels comically real in Kostanski’s lusciously imaginative world, from a kid turned into a giant brain to a menagerie of creatures sent to Earth to cut down the all-powerful PG. Each of his creations is embedded in a Jim Henson-inspired world of puppetry and creature effects. However, unlike Henson, this world is full of gore, death and destruction as this delightful B-movie space opera collides with human suburbia.
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