Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Psychos in Love (1987)

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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…

Poster art for Psychos in Love (1987)Psychos in Love (1987) by #GormanBechard

w/ #CarmineCapobianco #DebiThibeault

A strip-joint owner and a manicurist find they have many things in common, the foremost being that they are psychotic serial killers.

“”Love hurts…””

“A Deliciously Wicked Comedy”

#Horror #Slasher #Comedy
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

I first rented  Psychos in Love (1987) with a friend in the late ’80s and we thought it was pretty darn hilarious (or was it darned hilarious? Either way, it made us laugh). We also found it inspiring, as we dreamed of making low budget horror films for the direct-to-home-video marketplace. A pretty modest dream when you think back on it, but at the time it seemed like a great way to break into the business. We eventually wound up shooting (parts of) a couple of really bad horror films on 8mm video, but sadly we never managed to finish and get anything distributed. The market had pretty much dried up by the time we were anywhere close to done, so it may be just as well that our projects crashed and burned – but that’s another story.

Psychos in Love seemed like a very low budget film, but it was funny and had some pretty decent gore. Since discovering the films of Mel Brooks at a very young age, I tended to gravitate toward the satirical in my own writing, so I appreciated the spoofy tone of Gorman Bechard and Carmine Capobianco’s script. I was also a HUGE fan of slasher films, so this movie seemed to be everything that I would have wanted my own no budget movies to be.

A few years later, I picked up a VHS copy of Psychos in Love in a bargain bin and added it to my library. Watching it again as an adult, I remember thinking that it looked even cheaper than I had remembered – but it was still an entertaining watch. Many years have gone by, and still that VHS tape sits on my shelf. I remember the movie fondly, but I never fire up the VCR and watch it. So, it’s time to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test…

It does look cheap. And it makes good use of low budget techniques like having actors talk directly into the camera (almost foreshadowing crappy reality TV). It’s still funny, although not up to the level of Mel Brooks. The gore is still pretty impressive, all things considered. Story-wise, it seems to flatline for a long time in the middle. The beginning is pretty strong, but it quickly degenerates into a series of anecdotes about killing people. Each one, taken on its own merit, is entertaining. But the story simply isn’t moving forward. When the climactic sequence finally begins, it feel like it should have started much earlier, and had more to it. As it is, it’s pretty simple, and the movie ends rather abruptly. It doesn’t feel satisfying.

Having said that, Psychos in Love is a whole lot of fun in spite of its structural shortcomings. It should also be noted that it really delivers on the sleaze front. One of our main characters runs a strip club, after all, and there is plenty of nubile flesh on display. Depending on your point of view, this could be something to admire or to criticize. On #TrashOrTerrorTuesday, we always consider it a plus.

So what’s the verdict?

I would have to say that Psychos in Love (1987) is somehow both #Trash and #Terror. Okay, it’s not scary at all – but it’s not meant to be. It’s a zany, over-the-top comedy, and it succeeds at that better than many bigger budget films I could name. Psychos in Love supplies enough trashy fun to satisfy most discerning connoisseurs of #Trash  – and then some. And for aspiring, low budget filmmakers, I think it could still provide inspiration the way it did for me all those years ago. This VHS tape is a keeper.

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