Before I get started on the actual movie, let me say that that movie poster is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen. It’s right there with the posters from I Spit on Your Grave, The Evil Dead, and House. As an author and publisher, I know the value of great cover art. It’s true, you can’t judge a book by its cover, but it’s also true that cover art often sells a book. The same goes for movie posters.
Psychophonia doesn’t quite live up to that great poster, but it’s not too bad.
IMDB synopsis: When a woman’s husband is brutally murdered and castrated, she enlists the help of a paranormal expert to analyze strange phone calls from his phone and her investigations lead her to a group of swingers that expose her husband’s double life.
The script is actually smartly written, and I could see this as a bigger budget movie with a longer runtime. The film tipped its hand a couple of times, but I think that could’ve been cleaned up with a few more suspense scenes. The problem is, even at only seventy-five minutes, Psychophonia seems to drag in parts. This is largely due to budget constraints, I think. If the scenes of death had more gore and shock value, then the informative scenes would have been more bearable. The same goes for the sex scenes. If you’re going to have an attractive woman visiting a kinky swingers club, you shouldn’t disappoint the audience by repeatedly using dissolving, fuzzy camera shots.
The lead actress, Vedette Lim, shows real talent with her portrayal of Lilly. Once the movie was over I looked her up on IMDB and found that she’s primarily a character actor on on various TV programs. I wouldn’t mind seeing her in more thrillers in the future.
Watch Psychophonia on Tubi.