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Psycho Cop

  • 1989
  • R
  • 1h 27m
IMDb RATING
4.4/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
Psycho Cop (1989)
Six college students on their weekend vacation are humiliated and killed one by one by a psycho cop.
Play trailer1:13
1 Video
22 Photos
B-HorrorDark ComedySlasher HorrorTeen HorrorHorror

Six college students on their weekend vacation are humiliated and killed one by one by a psycho cop.Six college students on their weekend vacation are humiliated and killed one by one by a psycho cop.Six college students on their weekend vacation are humiliated and killed one by one by a psycho cop.

  • Director
    • Wallace Potts
  • Writer
    • Wallace Potts
  • Stars
    • Robert R. Shafer
    • Jeff Qualle
    • Palmer Lee Todd
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    4.4/10
    1.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Wallace Potts
    • Writer
      • Wallace Potts
    • Stars
      • Robert R. Shafer
      • Jeff Qualle
      • Palmer Lee Todd
    • 52User reviews
    • 28Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:13
    Trailer

    Photos22

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    Top cast12

    Edit
    Robert R. Shafer
    Robert R. Shafer
    • Officer Joe Vickers
    • (as Bobby Ray Shafer)
    Jeff Qualle
    • Doug
    Palmer Lee Todd
    • Laura
    Dan Campbell
    • Eric
    Cindy Guyer
    Cindy Guyer
    • Julie
    • (as Cynthia Guyer)
    Linda West
    • Sarah
    Greg Joujon-Roche
    Greg Joujon-Roche
    • Zack
    Bruce Melena
    Bruce Melena
    • Cop #1
    Glenn Steelman
    Glenn Steelman
    • Cop #2
    Julie Araskog
    Julie Araskog
    • Dead Woman
    Denise Hartman
    • Barbara…
    David L. Zeisler
    • Greg…
    • Director
      • Wallace Potts
    • Writer
      • Wallace Potts
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews52

    4.41.6K
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    Featured reviews

    liamstanbury

    So Bad its good.

    It has to be one of the worst movies ever but is very good to watch. We quite often play drinking games to it, for example everytime they say "beer" which is a lot take a drink. I think it has to be watched more than once to be fully appreciated.

    It has some good ideas but how the hell the cop catches up to people when he is walking and they are running or even in a car i don't know.

    Overall worth a watch and a laugh.
    4Coventry

    Hello, police? I'd like to report the world's dumbest slasher

    Well sure, we ALL loved "Maniac Cop", the 1988 horror semi-classic from William Lustig and Larry Cohen. "I want to do that too" is what writer/director Wallace Potts must have thought, and not even a year later "Psycho Cop" magically appeared. There's only one little problem, though. Wallace Potts is (was...) a talentless hack! He was only capable of imitating the obvious and superficial aspects, like the idea of a police officer as a horror villain, the title sequences and even blatantly the tagline (from "you have the right to remain silent ...forever" in "Maniac Cop" to "you have the right to remain dead" in "Psycho Cop"). But apart from all that, "Psycho Cop" is nothing but a mundane and terribly by-the-numbers late 80s slasher.

    I'm not going to lie, I had tremendous fun watching "Psycho Cop". But mainly because it's such an unbelievably inept and dumb slasher, full of embarrassing clichés and hopelessly empty-headed characters. Even when half of the six-headed group is already killed off, the remaining ones keep assuming the others are off buying beer or playing pranks. The killer, Officer Joe Vickers, is one giant joke as well. He supposedly is a devil-worshiper, but he totally doesn't have the profile of a Satanist. Apart from drawing one stupid pentagram in the sand, he does nothing what devil worshipers would do. He simply slaughters teens whilst hysterically laughing and saying moronic things.

    All this I can tolerate, but why-oh-why doesn't "Psycho Cop" feature more barbaric gore and gratuitous nudity? We have three beautiful girls (especially Palmer Lee Todd is very hot... and that even rhymes) laying by a pool half of the running time, but none of them takes the bikini top off. Lame! And now I must get my dirty little hands on the sequel.
    5Sandcooler

    All hail the caretaker

    I barely ever get to say this when it comes to horror movies, but the sequel is a lot better. Don't get me wrong, "Psycho Cop" has its moments, but obviously it sinks like a brick after the caretaker meets his demise. He was the glue that held everything together, without him the movie's plot almost seemed incoherent and moronic. And talk about screen presence, no definition is high enough to do the character justice. Oh caretaker, you were truly a God amongst men, nobody could hold an axe for vague reasons like you could. Sadly when you take this ingenious character out of the equation, you're stuck with the kind of average slasher movie people were already sick of back in 1989. Cars never start, phones never work, people keep wandering of into the woods for stupid reasons, dead killers are never as dead as they look, every teen is 35 years old, it's that kind of movie and very little more. Officer Joe Vickers is a pretty amusing psychopath, but I think he's much better in "Psycho Cop Returns". He just doesn't have material in this movie. "Psycho Cop" is not quite funny and not quite scary either, sort of a failed slasher pastiche.
    lor_

    Boring horror

    My review was written in January 1990 after watching the film on South Gate Entertainment video cassette.

    A catchy title fronts for a very boring video feature film, offering nothing in the way of diversion for horror fans.

    Bobby Ray Shafer is a bland choice for the title role, a policeman who's a satanist into the antisocial activity of stabbing folks for a blood ritual. Later on we find out he's the product of a broken home and is just posing as a cop.

    He terrorizes a bunch of stupid teens, off on a weekend outing at a remote house (as per conry horror genre format). Not much happens except for the clockwork killings, climaxing with the heroine surrounded by her friends who've been literally crucified.

    Weakest aspect of Wallace Potts' picture, a presentation from British producer Cassian Elwes, is the set of unfunny witticisms penned for Shafr to say while killing people. Tech credit are unimpressive; gore is the films' sole rasion d'etre.
    2b_kite

    Barely passable "Maniac Cop" ripoff.

    A low budget Maniac Cop rip off that is barely passable, made by people who obviously had no idea how to make a horror movie. Contains crappy kills, paranoid teens, and a killer who spits out one liners all while acting as wooden as a post. But hey it also has jokes... What has eighteen legs and two tits... the supreme court! 😂😄😀😐😒

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    Related interests

    Bridget Hoffman in The Evil Dead (1981)
    B-Horror
    Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sian Clifford in Fleabag (2016)
    Dark Comedy
    Roger Jackson in Scream (1996)
    Slasher Horror
    Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
    Teen Horror
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      All entries contain spoilers
    • Goofs
      Directly following The Caretaker's untimely demise, Doug, lounging poolside, claims to have heard screaming off in the woods. The Caretaker hadn't made a sound.
    • Quotes

      Officer Joe Vickers: You have the right to remain...*dead*.

    • Alternate versions
      German VHS release by UFA Video was cut by 17 seconds (related to violence/gore) to secure a "Not under 18" rating and also avoid being indexed by the BPjM. Starting with the 2011 DVD release by Voulez Vous Film, the cuts were was waived in Germany and since then all subsequent German video releases are completely uncensored now.
    • Connections
      Followed by Psycho Cop Returns (1993)
    • Soundtracks
      Sweet 'n Nasty
      Written by Diana Harris, Art Wood and Peter Margolis

      Performed by Diana Harris

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    FAQ13

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 28, 1989 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Psychocop
    • Filming locations
      • California, USA
    • Production company
      • Smoking Gun
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 27m(87 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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