Reg Traviss and fellow screen writer Micahel Carpenter have crafted a supremely frightening script and the cinema results are extraordinary. Directed as well by Traviss with flair and originality, he creates an atmosphere of almost surrealistic suspense and a unholy, dark environment of overwhelming dread. Charisma Carpenter gives a superb performance in the role of the young woman haunted by visions of what she believes to be remnants of violent episodes that have taken place in the house where she lives. There is incredibly disturbing imagery and horrific scares as she strives to discover the answers to all the terrifying mysteries. No one who sees this superior horror film will ever forget the unendurable suspense, stunning visions, and lightning like intensity that is Psychosis.

In the intro some hippie kids set up camp somewhere to protest the expansion of a motorway. Somebody is watching them, then someone else kills them. The killer acts all wild and crazy as if he's zombified.Years later a couple moves into a mansion in England. She's a famous crime novel writer, he's an even organizer. She's anxious, every sound she hears makes her nervous. She goes exploring and finds a couple having sex in the middle of her woods, the creepy guy then exposes himself to her. She sees some kid playing with a ball but when she goes after him he vanishes. Later her husband introduces the creepy guy as the new grounds-keeper.We learn that she's had in her past a massive mental breakdown. Now she's working on her new bestseller and is being pressured by her publisher. The quiet country is supposed to give her peace to work. But she keeps seeing things, namely some rocker she saw on TV, the killings from the intro, and the same killer running around her house. Her husbands distances himself a bit from her spending more time at work. One of the events he goes to is some type of party/orgy where the rocker is in attendance and the husband has fun with some girl who has been promised more than just hook ups.When the creepy guy cooks her dinner she faints and sees more stuff, namely all sorts of crimes in her house. As a result she kills the creepy guy by accident. Now it all unravels. She ends up in a mental institution. Her husband gets a nice royalty check and sells the mansion that will be turned into a clinic and lots of familiar characters show up that either makes things clear or raise more questions in so far as the story and the woman's madness is concerned.Movies about the British countryside, country people and madness are almost a subgenre in horror. And they are usually weak. This one is watchable. But it lacks something. Carpenter's character isn't likable enough and I don't think it helps to present her as already a little wacky. Stories like these are usually not entirely satisfactory because they presume a level of superhuman planning and all has to go right for the plans of the villain to work. The violence isn't very good. The villain isn't clear enough, from the main character's perspective, everyone is a villain and that just doesn't work. As with many English movies we get full frontal male nudity and little female nudity. Psychosis manages to create some creepiness and tension, but not enough, and lacks the atmosphere to engage the audience entirely.

"Psychosis" started out well enough, but then it went downhill quite fast, crumbling into boredom and a general lack of purpose.I am not going to even bother with the storyline here, as it was a very weak and thin storyline. The events that took place seemed irrelevant and at often incoherent.The movie trots ahead at a very slow pace, and nothing overly interesting happens, and as such this movie is a test to get through. And I have to admit that I didn't make it through. I gave up and had to turn it off out of sheer boredom.Although this movie was acted out by mostly people that I hadn't seen before, there was a single familiar face; Charisma Carpenter. But not even her presence in the movie was enough to keep anything in this movie afloat. Now, it is always nice to see new and unfamiliar faces, but when they have nothing proper to work with, then they are fighting a losing uphill battle.Don't get lured in and suckered in by the DVD cover, because the movie is not even remotely anything near as interesting as the DVD cover makes it out to be. This movie was bad with a capital B. We all have different like and dislikes, and "Psychosis" surely wasn't even close to the edge of being in my liking.

When it was available in the shops were I wander around it was immediately in sale. I should have known better. This is not good, simple as that. The main leads, Paul Sculfor and Charisma Carpenter aren't believable. Just watch at the end of the movie when something is happening to Paul, the acting given is not good. And Charisma couldn't convince me too, you see them both acting. But that's not the only problem. It's low on the red stuff so there should be some other teasers to watch but sadly it isn't. It's never frightening. just watch the first 5 minutes and the last 15 minutes, forget what lays in between. Could have been so much better...