Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Dalbert Pringle As an attention-grabbing title for a slasher-thriller picture of this one's twisted nature, I'd say that the use of a single word, like "Homicidal", was very effective in grasping my curiosity and interest.But, on the other hand, since Homicidal was apparently William Castle's sneering and envious answer to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, then this off-kilter, second-rate, maniac movie repeatedly fell short of its intended goal. It neither shocked me, nor held my attention for more than a few minutes at a time.Out of this whole movie there were only 2 memorable scenes in its entire 90-minute running time that I thought were stand-outs and worthy of any mention.The first scene happens at about the 15-minute point when Emily pulls a razor-sharp carving knife out of her purse and immediately begins to brutally stab the old Justice of the Peace in the stomach, over and over again, while 2 horrified witnesses look on.The second scene containing any fright-value takes place in the last 10 minutes of the story.In between these 2 moments there's about an hour's worth of story that literally goes nowhere and, believe me, this is more than enough to put most viewers off to sleep while the characters continually bicker away with each other.Even though I knew from the start that the 2 characters of Emily & Warren were being played by the same person, what came as a real surprise to me was to find out that it wasn't an effeminate man playing these dual roles, but rather a somewhat butch woman.I understand that it's never been officially revealed as to whether Jean Arless' voice as Warren was really hers, or if it was dubbed. All the same, her performance as a man was very convincing.I found it really puzzling that if William Castle had really wanted Homicidal to be a much more memorable rip-off of Psycho, then he should've made it a point to include a horrific "shower scene" in his film, as well. But, he didn't do this (much to my disappointment).All that Castle added to Homicidal, for novelty effect, was a somewhat ridiculous tongue-in-cheek "fright break" of 60 seconds which allowed those in the audience (who were easily frightened) to safely leave the theater before the story's climatic moment of terror got underway.

jlomax28 *Spoilers* Some reviews have stated that this is a blatant knock off of the very famous Alfred Hitchcock horror film Psycho, maybe... and that Homicidal was a film trying to cash in on the success of it's even more famous predecessor, perhaps... But in many ways Hitch took inspiration from William Castle movies like House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler and made his own low budget black and white horror film with a gimmick because he knew it would make a lot of money. I think William Castle was intentionally poking fun at Alfred Hitchcock's horror masterpiece. In many ways it is a satire to the film and at the same time trying to go beyond with a gorier death scenes and an even more confusing trans-gender killer. The imaginary is in many ways parallel with Psycho, I wish I could post pictures side by side, but just to name a few: The night time driving sequences with Emily are copycat to the ones with Janet Leigh, Helga the crippled old woman is reminiscent of Mrs. Bates in the rocking chair. The Justice of the Peace and his wife at the beginning reminds me of Sheriff Al Chambers in Psycho who is also woken up at an ungodly hour of the night to divulge information about Norman and his mother to Marion's sister. In the case of Homicidal, the Justice of the Peace is woken up to marry Emily to a random stranger/bellboy she meets in a hotel, Emily stabs him in the gut multiple times and it's quite bloody for 1961! This is my favorite Castle film. I truly see it as a satire. I think he made his films intentionally campy and funny, it's not as simple as being, "so bad it's good." It's intentionally, "bad," or over the top. It is different from the likes of Ed Wood who thought he was the next Orison Welles, creating the opposite reaction in his attempt to be taken seriously as a director. William Castle had his own unique tongue in cheek macabre humor and made low budget mainstream pictures with the STRANGEST plots of all time. Homicidal is no exception, it is very strange and gender bending! Drag King way before it's time. I love it.

PrometheusTree64 Funny about HOMICIDAL. For a Castle picture, it's at least a valid B-movie (while most of his stuff is C or D). But the irony in his obvious and unmitigated imitation of PSYCHO is that Hitchcock made PSYCHO to begin with because of William Castle! Hitch saw that Castle's movies were doing well at the box office, but weren't very good. So he wondered what a film like that might be like if someone good (i.e., himself) made it. Hence, PSYCHO... And then Castle sees PSYCHO and copies it with HOMICIDAL.So you have the imitator imitating the imitation of the imitator: Castle copying Hitchcock copying Castle copying Hitchcock! But you can't really even call it a "rip-off" of PSYCHO; it's more of an homage, being so similar and coming out the very next year.Of course, it's stupid, the film. But I rather "like" it. In an odd way, it's actually one of Castle's most polished -- well, comparatively -- films. And if anything, it's slightly creepier than PSYCHO, perhaps because of its downmarket elements.

HerrDoktorMabuse If you can't afford to catch Psycho at the local revival house, this is the movie to see. While it's clear that Homicidal had no pretensions of seriousness or originality, the camp fun is marred by lapses into incompetence. It's starts off with a bang and then bogs down into an endless talky exposition. But then, it attracted an audience that required careful explanation. While it probably stands as the only picture ever set in Solvang, they made disappointingly little use of the town's attributes as a miniature golf course version of Denmark. The references to Denmark also were a tipoff to the gender bending plot gimmick at the heart of the picture, due to that country's early 60s reputation for leadership in sex change surgery. I would also have to say that Leonie Leontovich had the makings of a great rap artist, conveying a surprisingly nuanced range of emotional subtleties in her non-speaking part. A shame, really, that she was neither seen nor heard more widely in the movies.