Homicidal (1961)

The Wonderful William Castle reimagines Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho with profoundly entertaining results. The film falls in line with Psycho, and Dressed to Kill with its own interpretation.

There is a tall, shapely but deadly blonde driving around town running her dodgy errands. It seems the woman is as immoral as she is outwardly beautiful in the style of Janet Leigh from Psycho. Soon the worst suspicions are confirmed after she loses it entirely with an attorney and stabs him viciously to death right in front of a startled new husband she arranged to marry for convenience.
Here is a cool, striking, immaculately coiffed blonde about town who has a mean streak and a murderous rage.
Castle, true to form, comes away with a rip-roaringly fun ride with some seriously dodgy psychology lessons and equally questionable rationality. A deliciously trashy twist on Psycho.

The film winds its way to a spectacularly amusing Psycho like showdown scene where all is revealed, even though you have probably guessed it from the first two minutes of the movie’s onset. William Castle tries his best to match Hitchcock’s innovation and style. He fails miserably yet still manages to put together a film that is never less than entertaining if shamelessly and laughably derivative at times.

The “Fright Break” arrives not a moment too soon as our murderous blonde starts to disappear for periods and the body count rises. We are introduced to a rather effeminate sibling who refuses to accept that his sister Emily could harbour any murderous rage. Meanwhile, there are lectures and ponderous moments of wisdom with discussions on what makes people “homicidal” interjected awkwardly mimicking the epilogue in Psycho. There are positives, such as the beautiful camerawork and lighting, and the performances, especially of the two female leads, are noticeably solid, and there are some moments of tension along the way.

There was a reason Castle was known as the Poor Man’s Hitchcock, but the fact is even the comparison itself is way too flattering. Castle directed some wonderfully enjoyable, light-hearted and lightweight horror films with his gimmickry and flair for theatrics coming to the fore, especially in marketing his product. Later tales of Castle being a total fraud who had somehow tricked his way into becoming a Hollywood producer-director. Still, whatever the dubious connections may have been or dubious intentions even, never did William Castle direct a boring film, and undoubtedly Homicidal is a bit of a scream!