Containing a gimmick just like other William Castle movies, Homicidal (1961) was made to cash in on Psycho, made just a year earlier. As such this is a pale ripoff, lacking much of what made Psycho great-but then again Castle wasn't even half the director Alfred Hitchcock was. Still he was able to make semi-entertaining movies, and Homicidal does have its fair share of moments, even if they are fragmented, happening in-between dull scenes. If anything, this movie has more in common with the Friday the 13th series and other slasher movies where the kills are the main focus, and the story takes something of a backseat. However, the killer does not remain a mystery, although events become complicated.
In fact, the movie doesn't truly get moving until near the end, which results in William Castle actually "Pausing" the movie to let the audience catch their breath. I imagine that some people were actually scared by this movie, but what's truly crazy is that there were reviewers who preferred this over Psycho. Still this is middle of the road material for Castle, who did actually make some half-way decent horror movies. Too bad this is is merely a sub par/okay effort. 66
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