BloodTheTelepathicDog I have viewed some of Piper's other work and have come to realize that if Edgewood Studios is absent from the credits, then you shouldn't bother. Drainiac was alright, Arachnia was pretty good but Psyclops is his best. The three aforementioned flicks all were produced by Edgewood while the two other Piper films I have viewed, Nymphoid Barbarian and Screaming Dead, both awful films, were not affiliated with Edgewood.Where Piper shines is through his mastery of making every penny in his low budget count. Where the majority of filmmakers flounder is through their special effects; usually of the computer animated variety. These effects are trite and amateurish, and Brett Piper rarely uses them, instead relying on ancient stop-motion techniques (which in my opinion are far more entertaining than all of the insipid films that use computer animation). That being said, Piper's main draw is the homage he pays to old B films of yore.This film tells the tale of video geek Shep (Merriman) who finds a machine that can open other dimensions. His three pals urge him to not tinker with the unknown, but had he took their advice into account, than this would have been a short film. So Shep tinkers away and unleashes creatures from another dimension while fusing his beloved camcorder to the side of his head (a rather bizarre twist but neat and unique). He then sets out to abduct the woman he pines for, Heather (Di Gregorio) with the aid of the creatures and a zombie duo.Although this film isn't great, it is head and shoulders above 95% of the direct-to-video garbage that litters your local rental store. Piper refuses to follow the lemmings in their journey toward the cliffs edge by shunning computer generated effects and creates a true modern B-Rate masterpiece.Violence:$$ (more gore than violence as the creatures kill the scientist that created the time-travel device and basically wreak havoc whenever given the chance).Nudity:$$ (one uncalled for scene of some girl making a home video of herself stripping that the friends watch, just for the sake of a naked body. Diane Di Gregorio also flashes Shep while he goofs around with his camcorder) Story:$$$$ (highly unique for a B-Rate film. Piper's screenplay creates some likable characters and employs solid dialogue to go along with the clever plot).Acting:$$$$ (Dan Merriman shines as the bizarre Shep, a man too eager to tinker and less concerned with the possibility of harming himself or others. He does a brilliant job with this oddball character, despite his obvious flaws, you can't help but like the weird guy. Diane Di Gregorio also shines as Shep's love interest, a naive young woman whose heart is larger than her mental capacity. Rob Monkiewicz and Irene Joseph do fine jobs with their "level-headed" characters.

rixrex While I enjoyed this B movie greatly, there is no way that it was not influenced by the great New England master of supernatural lore, HP Lovecraft. After all, filmed by citizens of New Hampshire and Vermont, no doubt fairly well-versed in the work of Lovecraft, as is nearly every supernatural and horror B movie scriptwriter. And the similarities with From Beyond are obvious, yet with a lighter touch that makes this venture stand well on its own. Nice animated model insects similar to what would be done in a Band/Full Moon Production, as is the brief glimpse of the "other world". How many here will understand the reference to the "videodisc" being recorded by the old-time inventor of the "other world" viewscope gadget? If not, check out CEDMAGIC.COM and learn about the last great step in non-laser grooved media formats, thanks to RCA.

Randy True, this movie comes with horror b-movie stamp well placed in its forehead. But some of us will usually get a kick of bad movies for being bad, but that doesn't mean that people should start making awful movies without even trying, at that's what this movie feels like, effortless. Its about this guy, who's very "into videos", but after a witch, a curse video and an old machine he gets transformed into Psyclops (I don't even recall him being referred as psyclops but it's not really important), a guy with a camera inserted into his skull (of course we've seen this before in movies like Hellraiser, La Cité des enfants perdus, Brazil, and Star Trek, but we're not actually looking for originality here, are we?), I gotta admit, the make up effects were quite good, the camera didn't seem too displaced and his whole head (camera included) seemed proportionate enough for the character, unfortunately that's the only good thing coming from this movie. The guy also make electricity come out of his hands and he starts harassing his friends and at the climax he tries to use one of his woman friends in a experiment for something (I wasn't paying that much attention) The movie tries to make us sympathize with the main character/villain, like Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, we don't want to see him harmed, but he is harassing his friends and trying to rule the world or something, of course it doesn't succeed, the character tries too hard to be funny or weird/creepy. The worst thing of it all is the acting, i've seen better in a porn video, it gets irritating, I know you're not supposed to pay attention to those kinds of details in these movies, but at least make an effort! I'm surprised there's even a mention of a director since clearly there was no talk of how and when to say things. In the end, we see these type of films to get a laugh at the absurdity of it all (sort of present in this one) and the laughable & cheesy effects, sure the "special" effects are in effect, special, but nothing a 10 year old couldn't conjure in your run of the mill video editing software.There's a scene at the end where Psyclops makes a beyond the grave (or beyond another parallel dimension/hell whatever) appearance and starts talking (in a oh so clever meta-film fashion) about how could they (his friends) not expect a sequel, in a way ripping of a film like Scream, I mean, who rips off a film like Scream? (well, aside from Scary Movie)In the end the movie doesn't belong in the "good because it's bad" category, it's just annoying.

Katatonia From the same director that brought us the horrible yet lovable Draniac now comes Psyclops! I must say I really enjoyed this movie, it was quite inventive and bizarre. Obviously Psyclops was made on a super low budget like all Brett Piper films, but therein he works his magic.If you don't like low budget films then you probably aren't going to like the movie. This isn't the latest $100 million Hollywood blockbuster, nor does it ever claim to be. Paradoxically this movie makes you think hard about possible parallel universes, and at the same time suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the utterly fantastic story.Scant few films still use stop-motion animation (ala Harryhausen), but Brett Piper still uses them in many of his movies, including this one. The stop-motion animation is very campy like a cheesy sci-fi film from the 1950's, and I'll guess that it's an homage to that era. Psyclops also uses opticals and various forms of CGI, but they are scant and it doesn't rely on them all that much. Did I mention that Psyclops has zombies with good old special effects makeup?Watching many new films each week I generally see a heap of unoriginal films, or trendy forgettable films. Psyclops may not be exactly Oscar material, but for a "B-Movie" it succeeds where so many others fail in originality. I've seen Psyclops twice now, and it was just as good the second time around as the first.