Psychonaut (Sohome Horror Pride 2025) review

By Simon Thompson

Writer/director Thijs Meuwese’s Psychonaut (no relation to Tim Schafer’s 2005 masterpiece video game of the same name) is a visually striking and conceptually imaginative genre meshing of romance, science fiction and horror that, while beautiful to look at, sadly suffers from both ropey dialogue and middling pacing to the detriment of its overall cohesion. 

The plot of Psychonaut, follows Maxime (Julia Batelaan), a young woman desperately trying to save her dying girlfriend Dylan (Yasmine Blake) from a near comatose vegetive state. The only way for Maxime to achieve this, however, is through a piece of technology, like those psi reader things from Akira, that is capable of allowing someone inside an individual’s memories. 

Due to the complexity of this technology, the only person that can operate is Maxime’s mother Samantha ( Fiona Dourif), who Maxime has a relationship that could charitably be described as strained. As Maxime enters Dylan’s mind to locate the memory needed to bring her back, she is stalked by Bogdan (Lloyd Hamwijk) an Agent Smith like figure trying to stop Samantha from rescuing Dylan. 

From a visual standpoint, Psychonaut is beautifully hypnotic to watch. Cinematographer Jasper Verkaart uses a monochromatic palette similar to that of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, as well as the works of Belgian comic book artist Hermann and Frank Miller’s Sin City (with only one scene being in colour), creating a moody sense of atmosphere in the process. The recurring use of shots which play with perspective as well as a foreboding sound design gives Psychonaut a distinctly Lynchian quality, and the scenes taking place in Samantha’s lab look straight out of some kind of lost early 1990s Tim Burton production of Frankenstein.

With what I imagine to be a relatively limited budget, Meuwese manages seamlessly the chopping and changing between the various memories and the world outside Dylan’s head. Managing to avoid making the movie look as if it was edited by Avid software for the price of a tray of Strika bombs. A detail that shows how much care Meuwese put into Psychonaut.

For all the visual splendour however, the script suffers from a chronic case of Whedon speak. Whedon speak is a serious illness where writers who aren’t Joss Whedon try and take his quippy, verbose style of writing and crowbar it into their own work without paying any attention to whether it fits the overall tone or not. As a result of this, almost every bit of dialogue consists of stunted banter and quips which land about as well as a distractible obese beagle piloting a hot air balloon. 

The performances from Julia Batelaan and Yasmine Blake are solid enough, but it’s Fiona Dourif in her role as Samantha who steals the show. Dourif shows that the acting genes do run in the family, as she expertly portrays a character struggling to balance completing the task at hand and the difficult relationship she has with her child at the same time. Lloyd Hamwijk is perfectly villainous as Bogdan, using a minimal amount of dialogue to convey the character’s intimidating personality. 

Overall Psychonaut is a commendably ambitious, imaginative, yet frustratingly flawed endeavour. If you’re one of those fair and even handed types that can power through the script’s excessive tepid banter, Psychonaut is worth a look strictly on the basis of the visuals.

Psychonaut screened as part of Sohome Horror Pride 2025.