• Wide Release
• Director: Jack M. Sell
• Written by: Peter Spelson, Jack M. Sell
• Running Time: 90 minutes
• Language: English
• MPAA Rating: PG-13 - Parents Strongly Cautioned
• Cast: Peter Spelson, Chris Carbis, Curt Colbert, Paul Marvel, Robin Newton, Jeff Caliendo, Lindsey Novak, Irwin Lewin, Corney Morgan, Bob McDonald

"The Psychotronic Man” defines itself in the opening minutes, suggesting that the protagonist of the piece is some kind of blue collar super-deity or psychic while simultaneously playing up his very human problems, namely alcoholism, as a non-contextualized flash-cut of a car exploding hints at a later significant event in barber Rocky Foscoe’s life – his own near death. The night before, while driving home from the shop, Rocky, chugging his whiskey substitute hair tonic, is unimpressed by beauty of the setting sun just out beyond his windshield; something that gives the treetops off in the distance an orange-tinted halo. The day-to-day rat race of work and endless car rides to and fro barely register, the manifesto of a middle class working stiff. Something ominous is at work in this scene, noting the aerial photography, it seems as though our friendly barber Rocky is being observed from above. Later, after the alcohol has forced Rocky to pull off to the side of the road for a catnap, things take a turn for the weird. Awakened by a strange sound, Rocky attempts to step out of his car and quickly discovers that he is hovering high above the Earth. What to make of this sequence? Is it the product of an alcohol induced fever dream, as Rocky’s shrink suggests, or is something supernatural, or maybe even extra-terrestrial, to blame? Sadly, there are no strong answers to any of these questions, as the film is content to downshift into what amounts to a paranormal slasher flick, one with a post-modern sentient edginess.

Following said event, Chicago barber Rocky Foscoe (Peter Spelson) suddenly discovers that he has the ability to see the future, although in brief snippets. He’s also experiencing some really bad headaches, and at the suggestion of his wife, is forced to seek help. He barely finds it in the form of a shrink, Dr. Steinberg (Paul Marvel), who, although interested in his fantastical story, is unable to really be of assistance. Taking matters into his own hands, Rocky heads out to Old Orchard Road, the place where the strange event had occurred. Over coffee, an old white-haired widower who lives nearby confirms that something out of the ordinary did indeed happen the night before. What the old man saw, a floating car high above the trees, seems to correspond with the details of Rocky’s own experience. The realization that whatever had transpired was real and not imagined seems to cause Rocky to have some type of head-clutching psychic tantrum and before long the old man is laying dead. That night, while reading the local newspaper, Dr. Steinberg happens upon the story of the strange murder out on Old Orchard Road and begins to sense that it has some connection to Rocky. He puts in a call to the police but it’s cut short as Rocky himself has arrived at his door for some late-night counselling. Tipped off to his meddling, Rocky shows the good doctor a quicker way to get to his car by hurling him out of his office window several stories up. Thankfully, the lead investigator Lt. Walter O'Brien (Chris Carbis) has enough sense to check the paper work on the good doctor’s desk. He discovers a name, and it’s the same name that corresponds with an article of clothing found at location of the dead body out on Old Orchard Road. O’Brien, a chubby Chicago cop with a touch of an Irish accent, is old school and that’s why he can’t seem to get his head around the way the two men were murdered, or how tire tracks in mud seemingly disappear. A gruff professor (Irwin Lewin) at a local college, who deems himself an expert in the pseudo-scientific field of para-psychology, fills in O’Brien on the phenomenon known as “psychotronic energy”, a term coined by the Soviets, which theorizes that a force exists that can defy or negate the gravity field, thus allowing people and objects to fly. The remainder of the film breaks down into what amounts to an overlong but generally thrilling cat and mouse game through the busy streets of Chicago, as Rocky, with what appears to be the entire Chicago police force on his tail, attempts to allude capture.

Getting a read on Rocky Foscoe was a bit difficult for me because there’s no real back-story provided. We already know that Rocky is an alcoholic and that he’s cheating on his wife with the girl that runs the shop next door but that’s nothing too shocking, but his acts of aggression, especially toward his wife, are. However, is his moodiness a product of his new-found supernatural abilities or were they present before that? It’s hard to tell. In the early part of the film, the audience sympathizes with Rocky and his plight, however, the more the filmmakers color him in, the less the audience wants to side with him. Rocky is the antithesis of the modern day super-being, the anti-Peter Parker. With great power comes great responsibility is the tagline, but for Rocky, that means placing yourself before all others. His selfishness seems to be a metaphor for the mood of the times. The S.I.A Agent (Corney Morgan) who appears at film’s end, regurgitating the mantra of the government that Rocky be allowed to live because he can “well benefit our national security” seems symbolic of the post-Vietnam anti-government antipathy in the country. A similar type of anti-hero has emerged in recent years, speaking directly to the souring zeitgeist of the American public at large, most recently in Doug Liman’s “Jumper”. It's difficult to feel anything, even hatred, for this type of character.

Almost as interesting as the film itself is the story of how it came to be. According to Spelson himself, he, an insurance agent by trade, and his friend, Jack M. Sell, had attempted to break into the film industry with little to no luck. They decided to try to make their own feature film even if it meant going outside the studio system to do it. After raising some cash and with the support of local Chicago area actors, the film went into production in late 1978. Since Chicago’s mayor Richard J. Daley of the time actively discouraged filmmaking in his city, Sell and Spelson were forced to shoot intricate downtown running gun battles and high speed car chases using fake police cars, all without permits and without prior notice going to the proper authorities. In many scenes, folks can be seen watching on in utter shock, something of which worked for the film, but probably got more than a few of Chicago’s finest in a tizzy. Although mavericks Spelson and Sell never found that Hollywood legitimacy they so longed for, they won’t long be forgotten as their film ultimately coined a new entry in the American lexicon, “psychotronic”. First used by author Michael J. Weldon, the term was sponged by Weldon after watching this film, in an effort to define ‘obscure quirky films that he felt were underappreciated by the mainstream’. It has since become a buzzword for most genre films.

As the lead, Peter Spelson (1985's "Blood Beat"), is quite dull. Framing his character as morose and untalkative, leaves him very little to do scene to scene except look constipated, clutch his forehead and make mad dashes for the nearest doorways. By contrast, the trio of investigating officers, Curt Colbert (1989's "Deadly Spygames"), Chris Carbis (1972's "The Fast Kill") and Jeff Caliendo, are rather interesting and fun, and I actually looked forward to seeing them, something that generally runs contrary to most police dramas where the interesting stuff happens when the cops are out of the picture. The rest of the cast is comprised of local area actors who were looking for the chance to flex their thespian-chops in a movie. Interestingly, the very next year John Landis and crew would arrive in town to shoot "The Blues Brothers". Not lost on me was the shot near film's end involving the car chase scene through the streets of Chicago and how one vehicle is dropped through the air, all of which is eerily similar to the ending of "The Psychotronic Man" down to the car dropping from the sky.

To pruchase this film I suggest you head on over to the Psychotronic Man website, set up by Spelson's family, and pick up the two-disc collector's version, complete with an audio track by Spelson himself.