Hard-boiled detective fiction writer Richard Foster (John Haslett Cuff) and his wife (Rose Graham) are having a dinner party with some friends to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Unfortunately for them, their housekeeper is Victoria Tusk (Agi Gallus), a madwoman with an even crazier sister named Sarah (Darlene Mignacco), who just escaped from a psychiatric ward after being accused of murdering their parents when they were just kiddos. After being cooped up for 20 years, Sarah is out and about in a big way with her pals, Kazma (Michael A. Miranda) and Tony (Pier Giorgio DiCicco), a pair of vicious fiends who obey her every command. Sarah and company kidnap Richard, his wife, and their dinner guests and whisk them away to the old abandoned mental institution for a night of fun and frivolity (of the torturous and murderous variety).

Psycho Girls (1986), in spite of its pacing issues, is quite the gory little charmer if you’re a total movie reprobate and/or cinematic maniac. The worst thing I can say about this film is that there’s an unexpected dialogue-heavy section during a dinner party of Richard and his friends that kills the film’s momentum for a bit. I’m not a fan of torture scenes on film, but after the long blab session with these goofballs debating crap and stuff, I was ready to see somebody get their toenails torn out. If you can get through this talky bit, the rest of the film is pretty much gold.

This cast is on freakin’ fire as everybody is totally game for this insanity. I especially love the femme fatale shtick of Ari Gallus. I just wish she was in the entire film! The film is called Psycho Girls, as in plural. These ladies needed to team up! Her performance as steak tartar was hella convincing tho. Darlene Mignacco is no slouch as Sarah. She steals the movie once things get cooking. Her only competition is Michael A. Miranda. If he could bottle his energy and sell it on the street, the world be a better place. The strangest thing about this cast is that DiCicco would go on to be the Poet Laureate of Toronto. For some reason his Wiki doesn’t mention his sole acting credit as a madman who electrocutes a nude woman in a bathtub. Go figure.  

While there aren’t any punk rockers in this film per se, Psycho Girls feels like a punk rock film, for my money. It’s just such an irreverent, wild, and angry little scrapper of a movie. I really adore the way Psycho Girls is shot and lit. The crew makes the most of the abandoned hospital locations. They’re just like hell, but with lots of kitschy tile everywhere. The villains are great and the good guys are annoying enough that you’ll enjoy watching them suffer. The torture sequences might kill the fun for you, or heck, maybe they’ll make you enjoy the film more! I’m not here to judge. Psycho Girls is chock full of madness, weirdness, and sadism(ness).

Psycho Girls looks and sounds excellent on this Vinegar Syndrome release. The 2k scan of the 35mm print looks nice and gnarly with the bright colors and all the delightful graininess that you’d expect from this low budget horror film. In a trio of interviews with the filmmakers, co-writer/director Jerry Ciccoritti, art director Craig Richards, and director of photography/editor Robert Bergman, look back on the making of Psycho Girls. After a film project fell through, they were broke and made Psycho Girls out of pure desperation to get them out of debt. Ciccoritti and Bergman go into more detail on the audio commentary track on this disc. There is also an audio interview with author Paul Corupe.