Psycho Beach Party
Strand Releasing | Release Date: August 4, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
7
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
It is surprisingly timely. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJay Carr
A little Hitchcock and some good Psycho fun at the beach. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob Graham
If it doesn't always come off, enough headlong energy develops to carry it through. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Its cheeky, good fun is what makes Psycho Beach Party an enjoyable, if weightless, romp. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Overstays its welcome until the jokes curdle and the satire becomes a blunt instrument, but not before Busch throws some priceless one-liners. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Smart, fun and mildly subversive, but it rides the wave of its joke a little too long. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
For all its energy and inspired moments of giddy goofiness, Psycho Beach Party gets stuck in the sand. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldCharles Savage
While there is archival value in permanently recording this work on celluloid, the best way to really enjoy it remains live on stage. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMarc Caro
There's nothing here that's outrageous, startling or daring enough to give your funny bone a jolt. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Never maintains the spark necessary to sustain a feature film. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
This unsubtle parody probably worked better on stage; its candy-colored artifice looks more than a little strained on film, and the actors are all trying really hard to be camp. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyErnest Hardy
Ultimately, Psycho...can't overcome the redundancy of parodying a genre that long ago sank into its own satiric muck. Read full review
40
Film.comErnest Hardy
The problem is, director Robert Lee King has a hard time sustaining the aimed-for camp tone, and while there are a few well-spaced giggles to be had, the movie sputters more than it soars for most of its 95 minutes. Read full review
30
Village VoiceDennis Lim
The viewer is left to ponder the number of levels on which this counts as a pointless exercise -- a parody of parodic movies, a deconstruction of transparent genres, a self-negatingly knowing example of camp. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Psycho Beach Party is, from the start, in dire need of the electroshock therapy that Florence ultimately undergoes. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
Charles Busch's spoof of beach-party movies and psychological thrillers, an off-Broadway hit 13 years ago, stubbornly refuses to entertain in this unrelentingly dull film version. Read full review
20
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
This multigenre parody is excruciatingly slow and unamusing; a go-go dancer in the opening and closing credits does as much in a few minutes to shake up our perspective on a bygone aesthetic as the entire narrative in between. Read full review
13
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Struggles like a fat kid on the gym rope to conjure up even a single decent laugh. Read full review
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