{{short description|1975 American horror film}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = Psycho from Texas | image = Cover_art,_Psycho_From_Texas.jpg | director = Jack Collins, Jim Feazell | producer = Jack Collins, Jim Feazell, Sherry Feazell | writer = Jim Feazell | music = Jaime Mendoza-Nava | cinematography = Paul Hipp | editing = Arjay | released = {{Film date|1975}} | country = United States | language = English }} '''''Psycho from Texas''''' is a 1975 American low-budget horror film directed by Jack Collins and Jim Feazell. The plot concerns a hitman being hired to kill an oil baron, who escapes and runs for his life. The movie was filmed in El Dorado, Arkansas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Albright |first1=Brian |title=Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9780786472277 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSH25LXGOksC&dq=%22psycho+from+texas%22&pg=PA178 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
The original title was ''Wheeler'' when it first came out in 1975. It was then refilmed in 1978 featuring the Linnea Quigley sequence. This was one of Quigley's first film appearances.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paul |first1=Louis |title=Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema |date=2008 |publisher=McFarland & Co |isbn=9780786429943 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZiKfBQAAQBAJ&dq=%22psycho+from+texas%22&pg=PA186}}</ref> Later, Quigley related unhappy memories of the shoot: "They made me take my clothes off and poured beer on me. It was stupid."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Palty |first1=Steven |last2=McComas |first2=Larissa |title=Linnea Laughs Last |journal=Femme Fatales |date=Summer 1995 |volume=4 |issue=1 |page=36 |url=https://archive.org/details/Femme_Fatales_v04n01/page/n35/mode/2up/search/%22psycho+from+texas%22?q=%22psycho+from+texas%22 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
The film's 1976 promotional stunt in New York City attracted attention. In 1990, the ''New York Daily News'' said "This obscure slasher [film] is best remembered from its cowboy-style promo campaign, when a loudspeaker-equipped truck bearing an outsized ''Psycho from Texas'' banner struck terror into unwary Times Square pedestrians when the pic premiered here back in '76."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Texas Terror |journal=New York Daily News |date=January 10, 1990 |page=35 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/467576021/?terms=%22psycho%2Bfrom%2Btexas%22 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
==Top Cast== * Herschel Mays as William Phillips * John King III as Wheeler * Reed Johnson as Steve Foster * Tommy Lamey as Slick * Jack Collins as Sheriff Tom Peterson * Joanne Bruno as Bertha * Candy Dee as Connie Phillips * Janel King as Ellen Peterson * Harold Grimmett as Mr. Willis * Roger Ellis as Banker * Marland Proctor as Deputy Carl * Linnea Quigley as Barmaid * Donald Moran as Man in Bar
==Crew== * Directed by Jack Collins and Jim Feazell * Written by Jim Feazell * Produced by Jack Collins, Jim Feazell, and Sherry Feazell * Music by Jaime Mendoza-Nava * Cinematography by Paul Hipp * Film Editing by Arjay * Production Management by Ron Johnson * Second Unit Director or Assistant Director by Marland Proctor * Sound Department by Bill Nelson and Darcy Vebber * Camera and Electrical Department by Doug Armstrong, Bob McVay, and Mike Petrich * Script and Continuity Department by Jeanne Scott
==Reception== ''Variety'' said, "After going through various title changes including ''Wheeler'', ''The Mama's Boy'' and ''The Hurting'', picture emerges as a modest example of regional filmmaking, with amateurish direction and playing suitable for undiscriminating viewers."<ref>{{cite book |title=Variety's Film Reviews: 1981-1982 |date=1989 |publisher=The University of Michigan |isbn=9780835227971 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kHFZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22psycho+from+texas%22 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
''The Creature Feature Movie Guide'' said, "[The movie] finally reached the screen with the impact of a redneck's double-barreled shotgun missing both firing pins... Watch this to ogle Leanna Quigley stripped naked by King III in the middle of an empty barroom and jiggle her breasts while he pours a pitcher of beer over her head. Watch for Jack Collins as the stereotyped sheriff, Joann Bruno as a screaming maid, and Tommy Lamey as a demented southerner named Slick who spends half the film chasing the overweight oilman through the swamp."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stanley |first1=John |title=The Creature Features Movie Guide Strikes Again |date=1994 |publisher=Creatures at Large Press |isbn=0-940064-09-X |page=308 |edition=4th |url=https://archive.org/details/creaturefeatures00stan/page/308/mode/2up |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
Even the box art on the video release attracted criticism, with ''The Deep Red Horror Handbook'' saying, "Really atrocious box art may alert the consumer to a film with an undeniable retard charm. Positively the worst tape box graphic ever is the one devised for ''Psycho From Texas'' (1974). The eyes of Charles Manson are superimposed over an autistic child's cut-outs of a cowboy hat and firing gun done in garish ''Romper Room'' primary colors. It complements perfectly the film contained therein, probably assembled by Tobe Hooper-styled inbreds, about a chubby maniac terrorizing a hick town mayor."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Balun |first1=Chas. |title=Deep Red Horror Handbook |date=1989 |publisher=Fantaco Enterprises |pages=38–39 |url=https://archive.org/details/Deep_Red_Horror_Handbook/page/n37/mode/2up/search/%22psycho+from+texas%22?q=%22psycho+from+texas%22 |accessdate=21 March 2020}}</ref>
==Further reading== * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZJpq7uewegC&dq=%22psycho+from+texas%22&pg=PA180 Feathers]'', autobiography by Jack Feazell, iUniverse (2011) * ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=GXccAQAAIAAJ&q=%22psycho+from+texas%22 The Films of the Eighties]'' by Robert A. and Gwendolyn Knight Rowland, McFarland & Co (1991), review on pg. 453-454
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0082955|Psycho from Texas}} * {{ Rotten Tomatoes | psycho_from_texas | Psycho from Texas}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94t1KZihd7Y&t=4054s Psycho From Texas] complete film on YouTube
Category:1975 films Category:1975 English-language films Category:American slasher films Category:1975 American films Category:Films shot in Arkansas Category:Films set in Texas Category:Films scored by Jaime Mendoza-Nava Category:El Dorado, Arkansas Category:1970s slasher films