Psycho Cop 2



AKA: Psycho Cop Returns

A group of office workers are planning on hiding in their office one evening so that they can surreptitiously use the space for a swinging, sexy bachelor party. But unbeknownst to them they’re about to have an unwanted party crasher: Officer Joe Vickers. Vickers is a Satanic-loving serial killer who, thanks to one of the blabbermouth party-goers, has gotten wind of the group’s secret little get-together. Deciding this is the perfect time to torment and knock-off some kinky revelers, Vickers sneaks into the building, putting the party animals, their strippers, and a couple other innocent office workers directly in the killer’s crosshairs.



Well, since I watched one sequel last week I thought I’d finish out the month by catching up on other sequels I haven’t gotten to yet. So here we go–

Psycho Cop 2 is an American slasher film from 1993, and is a direct sequel to Psycho Cop, which I watched a couple years ago. Truth be told, I really didn’t have high expectations for this film, because when I watched the first one I wasn’t all that impressed with it. I mean, it was okay, in its own, stupid sorta way. But it definitely wasn’t what I would consider good in any way either, so I can’t imagine too many people saw it and were out there clamoring for some kind of follow up. But I guess somebody with deep enough pockets was interested enough, because four years later they spat this out. Since I decided to dedicate this month to sequels and wasn’t particularly looking forward to this, I thought I’d watch this sooner, rather than later, just to get it out of the way. So imagine my surprise when I watched it and…actually kind of enjoyed it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a silly, middle-of-the-road slasher, but unlike the first film they seemed to have really figured out what they wanted to do this time, making for a much smoother, more enjoyable experience.


For some people…

Don’t get me wrong though. Though it may be better Psycho Cop 2 still has almost all the same problems its predecessor had. The plot? Mundane, though serviceable. The dialogue? Incredibly cheesy and ridiculous. Vickers is still spitting out goofy one-liners and cop-related puns like they’re going out of style, and just about everyone else sounds like a 12-year-old, and not the 30-40-something that they’re supposed to be. So don’t expect some type of moving soliloquy. The characters? Still dumb and clueless as a sack of dead mice. I think half of them are all operating off the same singular, damaged brain cell. It’s almost painful to watch them at times. The quality of acting? Cring-y might be the nicest way to put it. One guy acts so ridiculously jumpy and paranoid that you wonder how he’s even able to step out of the house at all, let alone manage to hold down a job. Though the crappy acting does often match the stupidity of the dialogue, so I’m sure all that cringy-ness was intentional. The one exception to all the cringe is the lovely Barbara Niven as the obvious “Final Girl”, because even a movie as silly as this was self-aware enough to realize that it needed to have at least one competent character in the ensemble that was smart enough to take on the killer.


And if you’re gonna pick a Final Girl, Barbara Niven is a solid choice.

So basically, it’s still the same cheesy slasher we got the first time around. The difference though, is that this time the film knows that it’s a cheesy slasher. The problem with the first Psycho Cop was that it was just trying way too hard to be serious, while also trying to work in their incredibly dumb characters and a snarky villain spouting cheesy one-liners. I’m guessing the filmmakers were aiming for some kind of Nightmare on Elm Street vibe, but their end result just ended up being too goofy to work the way they wanted. The seriousness was simply clashing way too hard with the stupidity. In the sequel though, it seems they realized it was better to capitalize on their strengths and decided to go in a more Bride of Chucky direction and simply embrace all the ridiculousness. And honestly, good call, because then you end up with a goofy horror movie that knows it’s a goofy horror movie, and the whole flow of the film ends up working 100x better. The plot works better, the dumb characters work better, the jokes work better, and overall it doesn’t seem quite so out of place to watch scenes where a group of shrieking strippers are running around an abandoned office building in ass-less chaps. So good on them for realizing what their film actually was. It really does make the experience far more enjoyable.


Well that’s helpful…

It also doesn’t hurt that the movie also looks a lot better than the first one. The camerawork is better, the lighting is better, and you can tell they actually used a decent camera this time around, so the picture quality isn’t as grainy. Hell, even the location is better (having a crazy cop try to kill you in an office building makes way more sense then having one try to kill you out in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere.) They also seem to have had a bit more of a budget this time, because the film actually has some pretty gory moments. The inside of Vicker’s car is literally covered in blood and body parts, one guy visibly gets his eye stabbed out, a couple people get impaled… It’s actually pretty impressive. Maybe not A+++ “we had millions of dollars at our disposal” impressive, but for a cheap B-movie it’s still pretty good, even if they had to resort to the rather lame “gunshot to the head” death three separate times. You still end up with a lot of splatter the last two times though, so for the gore fans it might end up being worth it.



The film’s one downside may be its pacing, because it does take a good 30 minutes for the movie to really hit its stride and get past the “let’s establish all our dumb characters” to all the fun “stabby stabby” parts. Not to say that nothing happens during that time, as you do have a car full of dead body parts and dead security guard thrown in there, but depending on your motivations for watching you may get a smidge bored. There are a couple of funny moments in there at the beginning, like the incredibly horny couple who seem to spend all day in the copy room making out and never even get to the all important “removal of undies” step until everyone leaves for the evening (seriously, how bloody long were you two in there?). Or, my personal favorite, when the one guy gets stuck in the elevator and opens the call box only to find a photocopied image of the emergency phone. But truth be told, none of these people are really all that interesting, so it kinda feels like the movie is just killing time until the actual killing kicks in. If you’re a skin fan though, you’re probably going to be more than happy to put up with it, because once the strippers show up you’re gifted with a five-minute-long soft-core strip-show, which I’m sure will make some viewers very happy. And if those same people are curious about the photocopy couple, fear not. You’ll get to see their skinless shenanigans later. The movie doesn’t leave you in the lurch regarding that particular plot point.


He kept his tie on. Truly a classy dude.

So color me shocked that Psycho Cop 2 turned out to be better than the first film. That certainly wasn’t something on my bingo card, especially after being thoroughly underwhelmed by the first movie, but I’m still pleasantly surprised by the outcome. It’s still a cheesy, silly slasher, but by the movie simply knowing that it’s a cheesy, silly slasher makes the outcome much more fun…. Assuming of course that that’s the kind of film you like. If you’re looking for more serious slasher fare, then you’ll probably be put off by all the dumb, goofy characters, and the silly dialogue. But if you like a little comedy (both overt, forced and dark!) to go along with your splatter , then this one could be a fun watch.

Psycho Cop 2 is available on a variety of streaming services.

Psycho Cop 2 is also available on Bluray (and DVD in some non-US territories).

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