review for Psycho from Texas on AllMovie

This whacked-out crime thriller appears to have been lensed in the late '70s (some sources date it as early as 1975), but its appearance on video is the only sure release, which also went under the titles Evil + Hate = Killer and Butcher. It's a slow-witted creepshow with some undeniably unsettling moments, but the primary attractions here are a number of enjoyably overblown performances. John King III is a wild-eyed hillbilly with a taste for killing and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Tommy Lamey is even more extreme, the bedraggled hick sucking on toothpicks and spouting cornpone witticisms like "Ah'm gonna kill your ass!" Most outlandish is Joanne Bruno as Bertha, the Phillips' housekeeper, who puts on a grotesque "Mammy" showcase before discovering a corpse in the pantry and letting loose with an interminable eye-rolling display of panic complete with "Oh Lawdy!" Linnea Quigley fans will want to collect this title for an early appearance by the reknowned "scream queen." She's the terrorized barmaid, stripped of her dress and forced to dance by the frenzied Wheeler, who demonstrates his approval by dousing her nakedness with a pitcher of beer. These scenery chewers are worth wasting time with, even worth enduring the sludgy action and Wheeler's ridiculous flashbacks, each preceeded by a goofy closeup of King's forehead and appropriate synth noodling on the soundtrack. It all ends abruptly with a shotgun blast to the chest, and the cast is introduced with smiling portraits (including an amusing credit for Colette Magoon as "Dead Girl").