Granted, I was not familiar with the 2020 thriller titled "The Pom Pom Murders" (aka "Ruthless Renegade") prior to sitting down here in 2025 to watch it for the first time. So I literally had no idea what I was in for, but I have to admit that given the movie's cover and title, I wasn't exactly expecting this to be an evenings worth of Shakespearian cinema.
Writers Doug Campbell and Tom Shell put together a script and storyline that proved to be entertaining enough for what it was. Sure, this wasn't exactly a Sherlock Holmes mystery, but it proved to be watchable, provided you enjoy a young-adult-who-done-it-mystery. I will say that the writers actually managed to throw a couple of curve balls throughout the course of the narrative, keeping the audience guessing at who was the culprit. And it was nicely done, because many of the characters were portrayed and set up in manners that would indicate that they might have been the killer.
I was not familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, which was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie as I do enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen. The acting performances in the movie were fair.
This movie is the type of movie you watch once and never again. There just simply isn't enough material in the storyline and narrative to support more than a single viewing.
My rating of director Tom Shell's 2020 movie lands on a five out of ten stars.
