Cannon Films have become legendary over the last decade for the movies they produced and distributed in the ’80s. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were out to dominate not merely movie theaters, but videostores. While most people focus on Cannon for releasing over the top action films starring Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone and Jean Claude Van Damme, the studio made and picked up dozens of films of all sorts of genres. One film that found itself with the Cannon logo on the header was Psycho Girls. The Canadian production went straight to video in the US market although a lot of the violence was sliced away. Now Psycho Girls has been restored so it can arrive on Blu-ray in a version better than when you rented it at The Video Bar in 1988.
On a special morning, little Sarah has made her parents breakfast in bed. The are so impressed that their little girl would be so wonderful to them. They don’t understand that the child went beyond the recipe and included a secret ingredient in the pancakes. This bit of creativity doesn’t get her a slot on Master Chef Jr, but confined to an insane asylum. Victoria (8-Bit Christmas‘s Agi Gallus) is quite happy with her sister being kept behind the locked gates. But Sarah (Joe Torre: Curveballs Along The Way‘s Daralene Mignacco) isn’t happy with the arrangement and busts out one night with two of her good friends. They arrive at Victoria’s place when she’s hosting a dinner party. Sarah and her pals are eager to change the menu and serve up a few unexpected delights.
Psycho Girls is framed as if it is being told to us by a Mickey Spillane mystery writer (John Haslett Cuff) while sitting at his manual typewriter. This is a story he doesn’t want us to forget. The movie itself is quite crazy with the lunatics on the loose. There are points where you forget about the plot and just let the insanity of the scenes take over. Joel Rosenbaum’s synth score adds to the cheesy charm of the Canuxploitation. This restored version of the movie is so much better than the cut VHS tape. Psycho Girls reminds you why it’s good to skip a dinner party now and then.
The Video is 1.33:1 full frame. Most of the transfer was taken off the 35mm interpostive. There’s a note at the start of the movie that the violent scenes that were originally clipped for the US video release couldn’t be located in 35mm elements. Vinegar Syndrome restored these shots from video sources. They did a find job of blending them together so there doesn’t appear a visual jolt. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo. You’ll hear screaming, stabbing and synths clearly. The movie is subtitled.
Audio Commentary brings together Jerry Ciccoritti and Robert Bergman to talk about making this film during a desperate two weeks. They really pulled something out of a complete abyss.
Filming Canadian Style (23:25) interviews co-writer/producer/director Jerry Ciccoritti. He talks about his love of classic monsters and punk rock. He, Michael Bochner, Robert Bergman and others joined together to form a production company that went bankrupt when their first feature film didn’t get off the ground. When they were at rock bottom, he decided they’d burn the 10,000 feet of 35mm film to make a feature film. He wrote a script that would take advantage of a house and a few locations they didn’t have to rent. They gathered up friends and made a film that ended up getting picked up by Cannon Films. There was a stipulation on the pickup. They had to kill one more person in the first five minutes in the film. Cannon released the film in 1986 on VHS although there was a cast and crew screening of the 35mm print. After this, he directed Graveyard Shift. You might know him from directed 14 epiosdes of Schitt’s Creek.
Psycho Team Effort (15:26) chats with producer/cinematographer/editor Robert Bergman about his filmmaking career. He met Jerry when they went to different high schools, but joined a club for kids who were interested in filmmaking. He talks about how he worked off instinct when shooting the film since they didn’t have too much time to make Psycho Girls. He would barely get 4 hours of sleep each night.
A Career Built on Psycho Girls (21:56) lets art director Craig Roberts discuss about the impact this film had on his life. He was a student in his final year of art college when he landed the gig. This was a great senior project for him. He gets into the nitty gritty of what he learned about working with the film stock to create the color and look of the film. He points out that one of their locations was also used in the Police Academy films and Strange Brew. They also discovered a bunch of things at the location that ended up being props in the film.
Audio Interview with Author and Film Historian Paul Corupe (15:53) gets into the filmmaking era in the mid-80s. The tax shelter status of films was messed up in 1983. Indie filmmakers had to learn how to make films fast and cheap in order to take advantage of the VHS market.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Psycho Girls. Directed by Jerry Ciccoritti. Screenplay by Jerry Ciccoritti and Michael Bockner. Starring John Haslett Cuff, Darlene Mignacco, Rose Graham, Agi Gallus, Michael A. Miranda, Pier Giorgio DiCicco & Michael Hoole. Running Time: 97 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Release Date: August 29, 2023.
