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Saturday, November 25, 2017

Psychos in Love (1987) - Horror, Comedy, Psycho

Psychos in Love (1987) - This movie starts with black and white interview footage of a serial killer Joe (Carmine Capobianco) relaying information about the women he has dated cut with scenes of the women being murdered by him. When it settles down on the fourth girl Dianne who our killer also fell for love at first sight. The deal was sealed when she expresses a hate for grapes as strong as his. After they meet we also get interviews from Dianne (Angela Nicholas) and we see she is a similar deranged killer.  She then also is seen in scenes where she murders her dates. Played for humor with light music the film does not take itself too seriously. The interview parts are like a post career retrospective and the interspersed scenes are to fill out the love story. There is also this breaking of the fourth wall where the color scenes are interrupted by Joe or Dianne noticing the camera. The film is a ridiculous comedy, crazy plot, loonie characters and gory fun. According to Wikipedia, "Carmine Capobianco said of the script, "We decided to do something that was totally off the wall, totally fun"."
 On the first date when they admit there psycho tendencies to each other their bond grows immediately strong. They almost immediately do a tandem murder well after they had sex that is. The after sex talk about what you do with the bodies after murdering them adds to the light comic approach the movie takes. Filmed exclusively with a male eye the film although about a male and female killer is all about the men. The scenes of Joe killing we see attractive women (probably too hot for the character) the camera lingers in closeup tight on the body parts sexualizing the victims. Nudity abounds in these murders while it is Dianne is sexualized in her murder scenes. She is enticing the men to let their guards down and always fatally for them. Last there are continued cutbacks to Joe's bar where he has a woman Nikki dancing bare breasted.
  Then we cut to the plumber Herman who clears a clog for a woman and then hits her over the head with a wrench. He proceeds to ripher cloths open and acts goofy in delight as he cuts her up and cooks parts of her in a pan of searing vegetables. His routine is to then dress and eat the victim as a luxury meal. So now we have three psycho killers and all appear above the law.
  Dianne has a problem with a victim where he turns the tables on her and rapes her, but with the help of a nearby rock she eventually wins the skirmish and desposes of him. Beside the Dianne one liner "That was no fun at all."  it does not seem to have a purpose.
  The plumber makes his way to Joe's bar and shows his total lack of game with the ladies. Joe on the other hand although heavy and balding seems to have no problem with the ladies at all. Yet he is in love and even is less interested in killing and more into spending time with lovely Dianne. The scenes of their lives together come with a song sung between the two main characters about the same characters "Psychos in Love" The movie never loses its sense of humor even if the humor is all one note.They don't stop trying with the jokes though and the death scene where they can't seem to kill Nikki enough leads to the two deciding to get married.
  Wow what a shit show of ridiculous bits from losing interest in killing and then having their first marital problems. They are determined to just be happy with each other and maybe not have kill kill kill. Dragging on to when they marathon the five Friday the 13th movies and all three Halloween movies. To more scenes of the bar and it makes one wonder if the ideas, although cute would ever lead to anything. I mean what happened to that plumber, doesn't he have to come back into the film. Of course it happens that they meet over a clogged sink.
  Coming to an agreement where Joe and Dianne will give the plumber is going well until he mentions eating with grape sauce. Things go south with the negotiating and we have another big gory gag. at this point this film could end because it has gone no where. Finally it ends in an argument between the couple.
  So what can you make of this film? It certainly has a personality but lacks the cohesion that shows any real plotting that matters. So in the end it is just a collection of gags based around a couple serial killers falling in love with each other. Hard to watch all the way through because the character arcs do not have enough range. I am sure I can not recommend this film even though it tries. It is cute for a bit, funny at times but ultimately does not get anywhere we hope.

Psychos in Love song

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