It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday
…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror
– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.
And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…
Psycho Cop 2 / Psycho Cop Returns (1993) by #AdamRifkin
w/ #RobertRShafer #BarbaraNiven #JulieStrain
A psycho cop decides to kill everyone who he thinks has broken the law.
“Something old, something new, someone bloody… and the man in blue!”
#Horror
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday
Confession: I’ve never seen the first Psycho Cop (1989) movie. I’ve always imagined that it was a ripoff of Maniac Cop (1988). Someone gave me an old VHS copy of Psycho Cop 2 (1993) back in the late ’90s. Truth be told it was a former video store owner who had closed up shop and was getting rid of old tapes. How could I not do my part to help? I brought home a boxful of ’90s movies that I’d never seen before. Most of them were trash, but I remembered enjoying this one quite a bit and adding it to my personal library. Fast forward a couple of decades and I really couldn’t remember much about it. I’d enjoyed seeing it on my shelf over the years, but for some reason I’d never had the urge to revisit it. Last week I decided that it was time to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test…
Psycho Cop 2 (1993) – or Psycho Cop Returns as it’s sometimes called – was directed by Adam Rifkin, who made films like Detroit Rock City (1999), The Chase (1994) and one of the segments in the awesome anthology Chillerama (2011). He also made a pretty nifty film called Look (2007), which was shot entirely from the perspective of security cameras. It works surprisingly well, and should be much better known than it is – but I digress…
Psycho Cop 2 is more like a slasher film than Maniac Cop – and as anyone who knows me can attest, I love slasher films. The plot goes something like this: a bunch of office workers throw a bachelor party and a psycho cop shows up to punish anyone who is breaking the law – which is pretty much everyone, since the whole party is against the rules. There are strippers, including relative newcomer and future star Julie Strain, and there are ridiculous, gory murders. Put simply, this movie really delivers the exploitation goods – and it’s all done with tongue firmly in cheek. It’s fast paced, funny, and just plain fun.
I can’t help but notice that it gets a higher rating on the IMDb than the original Psycho Cop, and I can believe it’s a better movie. Maybe one day I’ll watch part one and find out for sure. In any case, I believe that Psycho Cop 2 is entertaining enough to warrant repeat viewings.
So what’s the verdict?
As you can probably guess, I believe that Psycho Cop 2 (1993) is #Trash of the highest order, which means that it’s #Terror to me (although I wouldn’t exactly call it scary). I use the word #Terrror interchangeably with #Treasure – and I will certainly continue to treasure my VHS copy of this movie for years to come.
