The Psychopath (1973)

"The Psychopath" (aka. "An Eye for an Eye") was the film that Joe Spinell had planned to remake as a follow-up to his slasher masterpiece, "Maniac" in the mid '80s. Unfortunately, Spinell passed away suddenly and all we are left with is an 8-minute demo 'taste' of how amazing the film would've been, titled "Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie". Had that entire film been made there's no doubt it would've been a massive improvement of "The Psychopath", though I can't say this one isn't without its charms for what it's worth.

The moptopped, man child host of a kids puppet show TV program and all around friend to the community youngsters, Mr. Rabbey, is noticing that some of the local parents are mistreating their little ones. This realization sparks a rage that is even more intensified as he performs for kids in the hospital and sees the injuries and irrevocable mental scarring caused by parental abuse. He is soon pushed over the edge when one of the towns kids goes missing and turns up dead at the hands of his sadistic parents. So Mr. Rabbey ushers up some vigilante ass-whooping on these scumbag parents...

I really like this concept and the guy who plays Mr. Rabbey does a convincing job in his role, though I still found this movie to be much too clunky in spots. Much of the police investigation stuff and a handful of other unneeded scenes (such as a completely superfluous carnival sequence) slow the pace WAY down at times. The kills are pretty non-graphic, but however, for a PG-rating (obviously, '70s PG is vastly different from today's PG), I'll give it accolades for a baseball bat to the face and an implied death-by-lawnmower. Had the film been better written and directed I feel it would've had the strength to become something of a cult classic, perhaps, though it suffers in too many ways. We should've gotten a better sense of Rabbey's prowess as a television host; which is hardly explored, and even a little background as to why he is the way he is would've been nice. In all, "The Psychopath" (by the way, an odd title as many of us would argue that said 'psychopath' is doing God's work...) is a decent, but flawed rarity that IS worth seeing for its strengths. Would've been great to see what Spinell would've done with it.