“That’s the nice thing about trains — they’re always going somewhere.”
Poor Arnold Masters. Several years ago, this passive and harmless momma’s boy was sentenced to a mental institution for a murder that he didn’t commit. While he was incarcerated, his mother passed away, an event that was no doubt attributable to both the dying woman’s cancer as well as the incompetence of the medical “professionals” who were treating her.
Arnold (Jim Hutton) is a nice guy. Really, he is. He’s very compliant with his caretakers, and enjoys a very healthy relationship with the staff of the institution as well. Even if nobody does believe him.
Actually, scratch that, there is one person who believes him: Dr. Scott (Creature From The Black Lagoon’s Julie Adams), his handler. <
No, wait there’s another person that believes him, too: a stone-faced inmate by the name of Emilio (Stack Pierce), whom Arnold meets one afternoon out in the yard. Emilio is in for murder for well, although he isn’t innocent. He doesn’t even mind sharing his story: he killed his own daughter for being a prostitute as “an act of honor.” Since Emilio likes Arnold, he takes him into his confidence and tells him "the night before I die, I shall kill the pimp that made my daughter a whore. The day after I die, I shall help you find justice for yourself."
That night, Emilio performs a ritual with a mysterious medallion which enables him to pay a visit to the man who ruined both his life and the life of his daughter. The next day, Emilio informs Arnold of his triumph and promptly leaps from atop of the institution to his death on the road below, bequeathing all of his possessions to Arnold, including the medallion.
Soon, Arnold finds himself released from his world of padded walls and into the real world — a world of i
njustice and intolerance. Arnold enters this world still having an unfulfilled yearning to avenge his wrongful imprisonment and the death of his mother.
And so begins The Kirlian Force, better known as Psychic Killer (go ahead, sing "Psycho Killer," you know you want to), a low-budget but immensely fun thriller directed by Secret Agent Super Dragon’s own Ray Danton (who also reads the opening quote) and written by Danton; Mikel Angel (the genius behind The Love Butcher); and their fellow B-movie maverick, Greydon Clark (who also produced this film).
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