Psycho Review: Falls Short with a Disappointing Pay-Off!

The lack of empathy is what sets a psychopath apart from a regular human being. In that same way, a normal person’s inner journey is developed through reacting to the changing developments that take place in our lives. However, a person suffering from psychopathy could never, as they demonstrate a lack of emotional processing and response deficiencies. Mysskin’s Psycho (2020) is an interesting response to this theory above.

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The film is an unusual serial killer film. A modern interpretation of the Buddhist fable, Angulimala, Psycho amalgamates folklore with abnormal psychology. Similarly, the film itself is a tribute to Hitchcock in technique but also combines the trappings of Mysskin’s deft trademark staccato gestures, neo-noir film style and his ideas on themes such as redemption and sexual trauma.

Mysskin attempts to challenge the notions of psychopathy by giving his main antagonist a character arc. The titular character is shown to react to the consequences of his actions and he goes through a transformative stage towards the end. A very well-conceptualised ritual scene towards the climax displays the serial killer’s mental regression to an earlier point in his life and this comes very close to allowing the audience to be empathetic towards the antagonist.

Is it Mysskin’s overconfidence In his ability as a storyteller that he tries to explains the antagonists hardships through mere narration instead of giving us hard-hitting visuals to identify or resonate with? Psycho is littered with scenes of beheading and blood and it makes no sense why the director would omit a visual representation of this hardship that would help the audience understand why he becomes who he is.

The intention of  Psycho is excellent and there is a lot of thought that has gone into the making of this film but what we watch has to be reflective of it. The film has its moments but what starts off as a good build-up has a disappointing pay-off.

Rating – 3.25/5 | Grade – B

Images via Double Meaning Productions