"PG: Psycho Goreman" a scrappy, defiantly weird, friggin' cool '90s kid movie with gore

PG: Psycho Goreman (2021)

If E.T. came to Earth as a cosmic monster crossed between a Gwar band member, a Cenobite, a “Power Rangers” villain, and The Creeper from the “Jeepers Creepers” films, he would look something like the titular Psycho Goreman — that’s PG for short. Scrappy, defiantly weird, and gleefully gory, “PG: Psycho Goreman” feels like the most depraved and perverse ‘90s kid movie, complete with so much friggin’ cool splatter, rubbery prosthetics, and an end-credits rap song. It’s “Harry and the Hendersons” with a wild dose of Troma-ish absurdity. 

Siblings Mimi (Nita-Josee Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myer) are inseparable. They love playing in the backyard, especially their nonsensical, made-up game of Crazy Ball, but Mimi is the bossy one who always gets her way. After a muddy game of Crazy Ball where the loser must be buried alive, Luke digs up a glowing intergalactic gem. Hailing from the planet of Gigax, the Archduke of Nightmares (played by Matthew Ninaber and voiced by Steven Vlahos) is awakened and released in physical form from imprisonment within that gem. The shredded, less-than-approachable being, which Mimi and Luke find in an abandoned shoe factory and end up naming “Psycho Goreman” (or “‘PG’ for short”), stands for death and destruction, but Mimi is able to keep his power in check. In fact, Mimi—the current keeper of the Gem of Praxidike—holds the power that could destroy all that is good and just in the world. Meanwhile, Gigax’s chief commander Pandora (played by Kristen MacCulloch and voiced by Anna Tierney) travels to Earth to stop PG, leaving Mimi and Luke and their parents, fun layabout Greg (Adam Brooks) and harried nag Susan (Alexis Hancey), stuck in the middle of “a battle between evil and worse evil.”

What “PG: Psycho Goreman” obviously lacks in production value is redeemed by a lot of anarchic, kid-in-a-candy-store spirit and zeal, back to the days when filmmakers cared about their icky monster creations looking cool. Writer-director Steven Kostanski (2017’s tense and slimy “The Void”) never lets his budgetary restraints get him down by using every last resource in his toy box. The mythology of PG’s planet and the gem is overworked nonsense at best, but knowingly silly just the same. In fact, all of "PG: Psycho Goreman" has its slithery tongue pressed firmly in cheek. Not far off from a sitcom, PG becomes a pet that Mimi and Luke try keeping a secret for a while, until the entire family likes him (there’s even a bit within a montage of the family and PG piling their heads around a corner to watch dad Greg sneak a cookie). Amidst the carnage, Kostanski also infuses the proceedings with a comic mean streak, like how PG turns Mimi and Luke’s friend into a blob or how a cop gets boiled alive inside his own skin, controlled by PG no matter how many times he tries offing himself. There are other funny bits, like the payoff to “hunky boys” on a magazine cover Mimi introduces to PG and PG’s consistent forgetting of Luke’s name (yet Susan and Greg, no problem).

Outside of the cheesy, homemade feel of the effects and grotesque creature design (this includes the galaxy's council members of distinct Mos Einley Cantina-esque monsters), the production is rough around the edges in terms of editing between shots and ADR, but those gaffes mostly lend to the film’s overall charm. The performers are green, too, almost on the level of a ‘90s action figure commercial, but they all make up for it with their enthusiasm, particularly the newcomer playing pint-sized evil genius Mimi. Played to the hilt by Nita-Josee Hanna, the precocious Mimi is abrasive as hell but an unapologetic badass drunk with power. Emotional beats, where (1) Mimi and Luke must mend their sibling relationship after years of Mimi tormenting her brother, and (2) PG must learn the power of love, are played so earnestly that one can't help but be won over. Despite the domineering bossiness of Mimi, there still is an underlying sweetness between these siblings; in the early introductions, they even have their own wall-knocking language. 

The likably demented, decidedly not-PG “PG: Psycho Goreman” cannot in good conscience be called a conventionally "good" or even sane motion picture. It just wouldn't be "PG" otherwise, but if this were a 12-year-old boy’s first movie, it would be considered awesome — and that’s a high compliment. 

Grade: B 

RLJE Films is releasing “Psycho Goreman” (95 min.) in theaters, on demand, and digital on January 22, 2021.