Anatomy of a Psycho



Director - Boris Petroff (Shotgun Wedding, The Unearthly)
Starring - Ronnie Burns (the Honeymooners, Shotgun Slade), Pamela Lincoln (The Tingler, One Step Beyond), Darrell Howe (The Felony Squad, Teenage Idol)
Release Date - 1961
Genre - Crime
Tagline - "A terrifying searching expose"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

 

          I've been on a huge exploitation kick lately.  I started out by reviewing movies in the 80s a few weeks ago and that became a slippery slope to some bad exploitation flicks that are just too much fun.  I started working my way through my back log of AFGA releases when I got to The Violent Years which was written by the late and great Ed Wood Jr.  A bonus film on the blu was the 1961 crime thriller Anatomy of a Psycho which was supposedly written by Wood.  I had heard of this film beforehand but never had an opportunity to check it out.  Hell, I have two different releases of the film on DVD already.  One was from Something Weird and the other is a double feature from Vinegar Syndrome.  Thank you MVD for sending this one my way!

     The film follows Chet who is a bit of a rough one and is struggling with the fact that his brother was put to death for the murder of a man he tried to rob.  He vows to kill those responsible for convicting his brother and starts with the DA, the judge, before learning that his sister is about to marry the son of the eye witness that testified against him.  A series of unfortunate events leads to the murder of Chet's friend Moe and he pins the murder on the witness' son.  A rogue cop knows something is wrong and investigates the further and uncovers Chet's responsible for the murder and will stop at nothing to bring him to justice. 

     I went into this one with a bad taste in my mouth from The Violent Years but I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.  The movie was goofy as hell but I actually really enjoyed it.  In fact, I'm curious why this movie was the bonus feature on the release and not the main attraction.  The acting in this one is honestly not that bad but there was several scenes that left me scratching my head.  Especially the fight scenes.  I laughed at how bad they were and how awkward the cast was in them.  No choreography and you can tell the cast was afraid to touch each other.  The story for this one could be a pre-dated slasher in a way where someone wronged slowly stalks and extracts revenge on those responsible one by one.  It is not a horror movie, however, but it does work for the crime thriller angle.  Finally, there is one death scene but it is extremely boring and lackluster.  In fact, you will forget it before the movie is even over.  The effects are non-existent.  Overall, Anatomy of a Psycho is a flawed film but still well worth the watch.  It is definitely the highlight of The Violent Years release.