Film Review: PSYCHO COP RETURNS (1993)

PSYCHO COP RETURNS *** USA 1993 Dir: Rif Coogan (Adam Rifkin) 85 mins

A much livelier, bloodier and knowingly silly sequel, this gives more for Bobby Ray Shafer to play with, stalking a bunch of white-collar dudes having an office bachelor party after they piss him off at the donut shop by calling him “Officer In-Bred”.
Their night of weed, booze and fake-boobed strippers (including Julie Strain) soon becomes a bloodbath. Afforded a zestier script, Shafer tackles the role with gusto, relishing a wider range of terrible cop-themed one-liners (while sniffing a pair of panties: “I’m beginning to suspect foreplay…”), sporting a relentless rent-a-psycho grin and laughing at his own jokes. Everyone else plays it broad in a Troma-esque fashion, with deliberately goofy characters like the gurning fool who loses his shit early on and a Scrooge-like boss actually named “Mr Stonecipher” and equipped with his own comedy sound FX. In the largely dry realm of early 90’s American horror, this is quite fondly remembered for its engaging, jokey splatter: eyeball pencil-pokings, fax machine trauma, elevator shaft peril and a BAY OF THE BLOOD-inspired fucking couple skewered to the wall. It’s self-conscious (someone says “This is not FRIDAY THE 13TH Part Infinity!”) and Shafer’s many resurrections in the final act get repetitive, but it achieves its mission to be a breezy cinematic drinking game. Director Rifkin plays the guy with the video camera in the then-topical climactic sequence of Shafer beaten with baseball bats by a gang of city-folk, in a reversal of the Rodney King incident.

Review by Steven West