Shudder Movie Sunday: Psycho Goreman/The Strings/Fried Barry (Joe Bob's Last Drive-In)

 

Psycho Goreman (2020) 3/5

If Troma made a Power Rangers movie with the girl from The Bad Seed, her consistently emasculated brother always bending to her every whim, and parents just acting like, Whatever.

Mimi is scarier than any brain-crushing warrior monster from outer space. That narcissistic, obnoxious brat with a gem that orders around the universe's greatest alien killing machine looking like some demon from hell is the worst person to have such power...she has PG transform her friend into a giant brain with eyes!

The Strings (2020) 2/5

Poor Grace. Who wouldn't want someone to look at them as Grace looks at Catherine as she sings and plays piano at a bar while working off new music adapted in a little cottage on an island practically uninhabited during the very cold of winter? After that show they share a kiss, and Grace even stays with Catherine later in the week during the night...and the results of their photo shoot at an abandoned cabin with a notorious history (we see a guy walk into the water to drown himself, the very same shadowed figure/presence that eventually "follows" Catherine home to he cottage, it would seem) is a knife right into the heart of a potential romance.

When the credits run, I admit I was like, "So that's it?" I also admit I had to pop a Redbull in order to keep from dozing off because this film lulled me into near catatonia. Writer/director Glover shot this striking location in the heart of winter quite beautifully and some of his composites of Johnston are well done, but a lot of the glum story of a sad Catherine can be just a drag, I must admit. I think you can feel her sense of frustration in where she's at in life. A serious break up(she said her relationship with Derek was "circling the drain") and separation from her band (she felt she needed to make her own music, portraying her own particular voice) seemed to have left her broken. I don't recall ever feeling Catherine found that real happiness, even when there seemed to be sparks with Grace. Speaking of Grace, I would have loved more of her character in the film, since her sweet face and friendly presence was a pleasant contrast to the melancholia of Catherine.

The supernatural part of the film was my favorite parts of the film besides what little we get of Grace. Like Catherine in the kitchen as her bedroom door opens, soon revealing the dark figure. Or the slight shadow in a picture behind a stairwell. Or at a distance by the cabin outside. In Catherine's bedroom as she awakens. Waking up to find Grace whispering to nothingness, later found with one boot off ready to hang herself at the urging of the shadowy dark spirit of the drowned man seen at the beginning of the film.

But, for me, these elements don't quite seem as important as Catherine's doldrums, her attempts to break from the monotony of listening to string theory videos, smoking outside, walks across the roads of snow-ice mix, and naps by producing whatever music she can from the bevy of keyboards and sound instruments.

Fried Barry (2020) 1/5

An old heroin junkie in Cape Town abducted and possessed by an alien using his body to travel about taking in "the human experience".

I'm certainly not against sex in movies, but I guess whatever it is that takes over Barry's body lets off pheromones because men and women seem drawn to him, unless they are members of a violent gang or want to give him drugs. There is a lot of sex or folks wanting to have sex. Well, you certainly get plenty of Cape Town excess, for sure. One scene has Barry's squeeze pulling him to the bedroom while their son is playing with his toys at the table all aloof and in his own world. I couldn't stop thinking about that kid. It was rather depressing. This wasn't fun at all to me. I see why it is a cult hit with some. While there is some psychedelic playfulness in the abduction and "intermission" and some blasts of closeups of Barry and others at a rave, spending time with Barry (or even the alien in Barry's body) often took us places that I personally had no interest in visiting. You definitely get Cape Town warts and all, though. Alien Barry caged with a little girl by some freakshow after he was pummeled by a trio of territorial thugs was probably the final straw for me. This guy tries to take Alien Barry out with a chainsaw while the little girl gets his keys to release other kidnapped children in cages! Let the blood spray flow from that scumbag...Alien Barry was good for something beyond just leaving his seed that impregnates a hooker with her having an immediate baby birth!

Watched this as part of Joe Bob's Last Drive-In, so his interludes made this a bit easier to get through. Leave it to Joe Bob to take us through the history of heroin. His take on the film, too, is fun.