The climax proves thoroughly ridiculous, but by that point you’ve given up on the film anyway.

One could be forgiven for thinking that Polone and the screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker wanted to prank audiences, not actually terrify them. It didn’t work.

It’s a strange beast in that it’s too straightforward and dumb to work as a crime thriller yet too dull and scare-free to work as a horror, awkwardly falling somewhere in-between.

Even for a nuts-and-bolts slasher, Psycho Killer is some thin gruel, some watery tea, some bloody weak sauce.