psychotronic
Definitions
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or relating to a genre of low-budget films featuring fantastic horror or science fiction themes.
This word is a blend of ‘psycho’, slang for ‘crazy, insane,’ and ‘-tronic’ of ‘electronic.’ The earlier meaning, ‘referring to psychotronics,’ which is ‘the study of the interaction between matter, energy and the mind,’ came about in the late 1960s. The film meaning originated in the early 1980s and was first used by publisher/editor Michael Weldon.
Examples
“[Michael Weldon] calls them 'psychotronic films' ('psycho meaning the horror film and tronic suggesting science fiction'), and his essential 3,500-entry Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film gives cinematic cheese like The Gore-Gore Girls and Mondo Daytona their due.”
Melissa Pierson, ‘He Came From Cleveland,’ Entertainment Weekly, November 8, 1991
“In the United States, talk of mind control typically evokes visions of tinfoil hats. But the idea of psychotronic weapons enjoys some respectability in Russia.”
