Psychic Killer (1975)
Directed by Ray Danton

Starring Jim Hutton Julie Adams Mary Wilcox Paul Burke

A so-so supernatural thriller from the mid-1970s, "Psychic Killer" was resurrected by Dark Sky Films in 2008 with a splendid looking DVD release. As '70s horror movies go, it's got a good story, but ultimately gets weighed under by its talkiness.

Jim Hutton plays a man imprisoned in an insane asylum, he claims, for a crime he didn't commit. Before committing suicide, another inmate leaves him with the power of astral projection -- enabling him to murder people in his sleep.

He's released from the asylum when the real killer in his case confesses. Bitter at medical officials who mistreated his mother -- and at government officials who imprisoned him -- he goes on a killing spree, using his mind. Basically, his targets die in freak accidents.

The most hilarious scene has a nurse (exploitation actress Mary Wilcox) killed off by a scalding shower -- after stripping for a few minutes in what has to be one of the funniest erotic dances comitted to film. (Surprisingly, this film had a PG rating despite Wilcox's nude scene and bloody death afterward.) The plot thickens when her doctor from the asylum begins investigating the phenomenon of astral projection with a parapsychologist and work to save him from himself.

Director Danton gave the film some artistic touches, including some interesting dream sequences and an interesting story invovling the man who gave Hutton's character his astral projection power. But the film is too talky and the "creative deaths" are often pretty uncreative: One lawyer is crushed by a giant concrete slab and someone else dies in a simple car crash. The most interesting scene is Wilcox's.

But if you're a fan of '70s horror and have seen just about everything else, this is worth looking up. It's not bad. And for some fans of this genre, that's good enough. Director Danton also helmed the Manson-inspired "Deathmaster."

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-- Review by Lucius Gore

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