The Insane 80s Sci-Fi Thriller You’ve Never Heard Of Was Filmed Illegally, The Danger Is Real
Written by Robert Scucci | Published
1980’s The Psychotronic Man is one of those films that should go on your watch list if you’re an intelligent person dealing with crippling amounts of skepticism. It’s not a good movie. It’s raw, rough around the edges, and it’s done well enough to pass off as a forgotten B-movie with a $175,000 budget. Not only that it was personally financed by Peter G. Spelson, who wrote, produced, and starred in it, and it was shot illegally, completely outside the studio system.
During its production, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley stopped filming in the city because many of the films coming out were satirical, and he didn’t want Chicago to be portrayed in a negative light. Instead of abandoning his project, Spelson continued to make the film anyway. Every scene of the city with gunfights and car chases is done without permission, without notice, and without apology, which shows well what you can achieve by making a guerilla film.
And we don’t talk about it Bowfinger-level trickery or. People could be killed brutally if they found themselves in the middle of an unsanctioned chase that involved fake police cars tearing through city streets and speeding recklessly without warning.
A Very Bad Movie
What is unfortunate? The Psychotronic Man that its production values leave much to be desired. The chase scenes are solid, all things considered, but the rest of the film plays like a throwaway episode X files. While this is a common pitfall when one person runs the show (see also: Neil Breen, Tommy Wiseau), there’s still something to enjoy here on a molecular level. One guy wanted to make a movie, he didn’t know what to do, and he did it anyway.
The end product is, as you’d expect, a total doozy, and you usually have to be a fan of B movies to get your foot in the door. You have to squint, read between the lines, and imagine a movie that might have had the right studio backing to really enjoy it.
The film is about a troubled man named Rocky Foscoe (Peter G. Spelson), a barber on the verge of a mental break. He drinks too much, then drives around, blacks out, and loses track of time. During these blackouts, he insists that his car start flying, but no one believes him, not even his wife (Lindsey Novak), because he is the worst kind of alcoholic. When Rocky complains about his problems to Dr. Stenberg (Paul Marvel), his concern does not go away because there is no concrete way to prove what he says.
Desperate to retrace his steps and prove he’s not crazy, Rocky returns to the street where he first heard the incident and meets an old man who believes him. When Rocky has another episode, the old man attacks him, but Rocky kills him with his mind. There are no special effects used in this sequence, so again, you have to use your imagination.
There’s Really Not Much To It
As Rocky’s behavior grows The Psychotronic Maneveryone ends up stuck, making sure he’s not just a drunk trying to justify his blackout. When it becomes clear that he is incredibly dangerous, and that his hidden powers are truly a threat to the physical world, the chase is on, and everything comes out.
The chase sequences are the best parts of the The Psychotronic Man because they are actually real. Real cars on real Chicago streets. These pictures are all stolen and done completely in a sneak. It’s a miracle that a random pedestrian wasn’t picked up while these scenes were being filmed, and it’s even crazy to think that at any moment the production could have been shut down, with Peter G. Spelson thrown in jail for reckless endangerment and breaking God knows how many other laws in the process.
I don’t care if you like this movie, love it, hate it, or don’t plan on watching it at all. It takes a huge amount of balls to just say “screw it” and do what you want regardless of the consequences. For that reason alone, I love this movie because it proves that sometimes all you need to do is take risks and believe in yourself if you want to see your vision come true. No one else will do it for you.
But I’d be lying if I said it was a good B-movie. That’s right. I don’t regret watching it, and I’m glad it’s there. Part of me wishes it had a bigger budget because the idea is cool, but there weren’t enough resources to pull it together.
From this writing, you can broadcast The Psychotronic Man free on Tubi.
