Psycho (2020)

 Although, I thought it was a wee bit overlong, Mysskin's Psycho (2020) should offer slasher fans plenty they probably look for. I'd say this is more serial killer thriller than the traditional American slasher but that isn't a knock against the film at all. It's grisly (Rajkumar Pitchumani  loves to use his pocket knife to puncture bellies, attacks a woman with a screwdriver to the throat multiple times, slices a throat when a victim attempts to tell out his license plate number, and chops off heads from many women and one detective who locates his pig farm), has neat civilian detective work (blind Udhayanidhi Stalin, in love with the lead, Aditi Rao Hydari, kidnapped by Pitchumani, "coerces" bitter paraplegic ex-cop, Nithya Menen, in mechanical wheelchair to help him try to find Hydari), lots of inventive camera work (lots of rotating camera around Pitchumani's head-chopping table, distanced shots from different high and length angles, and smooth use of background and foreground, especially when Pitchumani surprises victims such as Stalin's best friend, Singampuli, while hiding in some thick grass, and a woman who managed to avoid being caught by him through his usual injured dog trick, not expecting him in a parking garage), severed head sequences (the killer likes to leave headless bodies for the police to find, but includes one victim at the home of Stalin to mock him; the cop head in a box is particularly dispicable), and savage, cold blooded killings in the table room (with a floor full of blood and filth), many for Hydari to witness. 

The killer, for the most part, remains stoic and stone-faced, until the end when he sets up a ritual for an old teacher who badly abused him as an orphan (held prisoner for eight years), dressed as a nun, is strapped to a chair, while Hydari is placed in a separate chair to see him embark on a "performance reenactment" from an incident as a child that resulted in punishment, with him begging not to be harmed. 

So the film establishes the killer as someone severely warped by his upbringing with the horrible woman. Hydari, despite seeing the horrors in the head-chop kill room, at a press conference, sympathizes his "condition"; when rescued at the end by a stabbed Stalin (he fails to stop Pitchumani, despite eventually using a taser on him and locking his feet with clamps), Hydari even leaves keys to his feet clamps so he can get freed! That's the shocking part of the film to me...that Hydari, despite even seeing the detective's head chopped off (for extra potency, the cop tells her he spent years trying to catch Pitchumani, even suffering divorce and failure to stop the killing spree due to lack of evidence) while "granted" a final song that is interrupted by the impatient Pitchumani, she still finds him but a child corrupted by abuse.

 I have noticed some commenting that Hydari is suffering Stockholm Syndrome because she was in the kill room chained for quite a while, had been spared for some time despite most others not having such luxury, experienced as an audience to his childhood trauma played out, talked to the cruel teacher not at all sorry for her actions that obviously resulted in the mental disturbance plaguing Pitchumani, and watched as she finally escaped the killer's begging "teacher not to leave him". 

I think the detective part of the film where a very good Menen, just stewing everyday about being deprived not only the ability to walk but a career in the police force, proving how bright she is and Stalin, despite not having sight still was equipped with good instincts and a sense of smell, put the pieces together the police couldn't and eventually track down Pitchumani's lair. There is this one excellent scene where Menen is Stalin's eyes when he is secretly in the police station looking for documents (he has a camera with a light) and her picture is on the wall...she wishes for him to hold the camera on her; it is a brief but powerful moment because of how it reminds her of what she's lost. 

I also thought how Menen and Stalin figure out the dog trick and use of garbage bins, with some key conversations with neighborhood kids, not mention, positioning of left-behind vehicles provide some really clever detective sequences. Renuka, Menen's long-suffering mother, can't be left out as help to the detective duo, with Stalin's loyal buddy, Singampuli, giving his life in a chace of Pitchumani that results in his demise thanks to the use of a vicious stabbing/neck slicing. 

With style to burn and a developing "catch me if you can" pursuit of a killer that director Mysskin ably builds with captivating craftsmanship, this Indian psycho-thriller might be two hours long but how a blind man and paraplegic ex cop are able to calculate and accumulate all the data through cunning and determined detective work is rewarding and worth the journey. This film includes a hilarious car ride to the pig farm/kill factory as Menen rides shotgun in absolute terror while trying to guide Stalin as he drives! I do think a music sequence that proves Stalin is a talented musician as he sings for Hydari might take some slasher fans out of the film. Haydari is absolutely striking. 4/5