Mr. Crocket

Plot

A mother embarks on a perilous quest to rescue her son from a demonic children's show host who is kidnapping kids.

Cast

Not familiar with anybody involved.

Verdict

My movie night pick having no idea what it even was turned out to be a really quite nice surprise and certainly something I'd welcome more of.

Mr Crocket is an original horror film that very much draws influence from many 1980's and 1990's movies while forging its own identity and bringing a lot of new ideas to the table.

With a fascinating new antagonist that's more 1 dimensional than most I was hooked from the opening moments.

Mr Crocket has the potential to turn into a modern day horror icon and man does the genre need a few right now! Let's have more Mr Crocket movies please and build up the lore further.

You see it all looks fantastic, it's acted well, it's written solidly and though it does perhaps trail off a but near the end it never lost my attention and that's quite the feat.

I want more and solidly recommend this to any true horror enthusiast.

Rants

When it comes to horror icons look at who there is, now look at when they started. They all had a large number of films over many decades but who can you say that about newer characters that have had multiple films and you can see carrying on long into the future? Not many are there. It's such a shame, we need to remedy that badly in this guys opinion.

The Good

Very original stuff Great antagonist, both character and actor Extremely engaging

The Bad

Last act is weaker than the rest Intolerable kid.

Mr. Crocket is a fun, bloody ride that blends dark children's TV vibes with satisfyingly campy horror. The deaths are sick and funny, the puppets are demented, and the cartoon sequences are genuinely creepy. A lot of effort has gone into recreating the 90s aesthetic through the sets and wardrobe, so it's definitely worth a watch if you're looking for 90s horror nostalgia.

Elvis Nolasco is undeniably the star of the show as Mr. Crocket, the unsettling kids' TV host who blurs the line between saccharine sweetness and killer monstrosity.

Unfortunately, after a very creatively bloody opening that hooks you in, the story does start to lose some steam. The pacing becomes uneven, and the plot feels a bit clunky and disjointed at times. As a movie adapted from a short, you can tell that the adaption from its intended runtime to 90 minutes wasn't the smoothest transition. Still, it manages to hang on and keeps things interesting enough to pull you through.

If you're into dark kids' TV, practical gore, or VHS horror, Mr. Crocket is certainly worth a watch. It's not without its flaws, but you can tell that the makers poured a lot of passion into making this - at no point does it feel phoned in. It's the kind of movie that's best enjoyed on a Friday night when you're in the mood for something fun and a little twisted.

Considering we're less than a decade into obliterating black tropes in horror, I'm excited to see daring films like this. Script is a little flimsy and probably could have better spent the budget on some production design, but the acting is solid and the story works. The 80's-90's setting, which feels somewhat derivative of Peele, plays well into the surrealism.

Elvis Nolasco delivers on the assignment of his character, borrowing from legendary performances like Gene Wilder's, Wonka and Clarence William's, Mr. Simms. Although he lacks the physicality they both had.

But honestly, the steam escapes pretty quickly and we're left with a soggy, fantasy-horror.

Can't believe some of the bad reviews this movie is getting!

Having grown up in the 90s, I remember the torture of having to watch Barney on repeat as the TV served as a babysitter for my younger sibling, so the premise hits me in the childood.

Mr. Crocket is a psychotic supernatural Mr. Rodgers with a nightmarish dash of PeeWee's playhouse for his realm.

Solid story and practical effects makes for spooky fun reminiscent of a good old school episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, or a tamer version of Tales from the Hood

Only complaint I have is it's hard to imagine the mom wanting her son Major back as he's a complete and utter ****

Ignore the low score ratings and reviews. It may be far from perfect but that can't change the fact that it is a horror movie that evolves around a very unsettling horror figure, portrayed by Elvis Lolasco who gives a great performance as a demonic children's entertainer. His ability to change moods and transform from a happy show host to a malevont entity in an instant steals the show. Yes, some directing choices are questionable, the demonic toys looked more silly than scary ( I can't explain why the thought they would fit in the movie), some moments were unintenionally funny but the spooky and surrealistic atmosphere is there, the dread aura of Mr Crocket is there and the movie has some good stuff worth exploring. Some may say the movie didnt have enough scary scenes and those that tried to scare failed (e.g. The low bufget movie splatter scenes). In my opinion, the real scare is the underlying nature of the antagonist, a truly evil character who hides his malevolence behind a child-friendly personality and an actually hellish kid's show. I want to see more of the Mr Crocket, in the future, he is a horror villain that honestly captured my interest.