THE PSYCHOPATH (1966)
Article #587 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 10-23-2003
Posting Date: 3-18-2003

A series of murders are committed in which dolls that resemble the victims are left on the scene.

The title of this movie clearly harks back to PSYCHO and there are certain story elements that resemble the ones in that movie, but since the script is by none other than Robert Bloch (who wrote the original story for PSYCHO), this is more acceptable. In fact, the movie has its fair share of surprises in line; though you might figure out the identity of the murderer, you’ll never really know for sure until late in the movie. At first, it doesn’t even seem much like a horror movie, the first half playing out as it does more like a crime movie than anything else, but when the murders really get going in the second half, it swings into horror. The only real fly in the ointment here is Margaret Johnston’s performance; I found it strident and unconvincing; however, the script is strong enough to overcome this problem. And it does have a nice creepy ending to it all.