Cherrypicker

Ankle Biters (or Cherrypicker) is a story about four little girls who set out on a quest to destroy their mother's love life and harm their future stepdad, Sean (Zion Forest Lee). And they do succeed in a spectacular fashion.

It starts as a spoiled child comedy and feels kinda innocent. The girls just put spider eggs in Sean's ear and put a pin in an apple he's supposed to eat. But then, well, everything goes sideways. There's gore and there's death.

I was not impressed by acting - except for the four little girls who were just great. The actresses are real-life sisters Dahlia Reed, Violet Reed, Lily Reed and Rosalie Reed, and they keep their real names in this movie. So, not much in terms of acting, and some poor dialogs. But camera work is good, and blood specal effects really deliver.

It's nuts, and it's fun.

The writers were THIS close to making dialogue that humans might actually say and behaviors that might be how people act. I mean, it was truly impressive to see that much effort put into almost hitting the mark. From the opening scene of Chase mutilating a player in a hockey match, I understood that I was watching something written by aliens posing as screenwriters.

This movie is neither a horror nor a black comedy. It tries to be either, but in a drunken way that just makes everyone involved seem desperate and kinda sad.

Characters are unlikable, though the little girls are kinda cute. The situations are ridiculous, and everyone seems to make the stupidest choices ever. We the viewers have to be told several times how good a mother she is, though all evidence points to the contrary. The score is always trying way too hard, and never really matches what's going on.

Even as background noise, this movie isn't good. Really should be only 2 stars, but the premise had a lot of potential in my opinion. Skip it, unless you really want to see for yourself how bad it is.

I actually liked this movie. The girls acted well enough especially Rosie. The storyline was intriguing. Nice ending. Watch it! Its not boring at all.

At least the synopsis for this 2021 horror comedy sounded interesting. And it was that synopsis that lured me into watching "Cherrypicker" from writers Bennet De Brabandere and Zion Forrest Lee, because I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it. And with it being a horror comedy, and a movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to watch "Cherrypicker".

Well, I suppose that the script was interesting enough on paper in order for director (and writer) Bennet De Brabandere to make it into a movie. And yeah, there were certainly aspects to the script and plot that had potential. But ultimately, then "Cherrypicker" was a swing and a miss, and it director Bennet De Brabandere completely failed to deliver a movie that proved interesting, entertaining or enjoyable to me.

In fact, I managed to suffer through about half of the ordeal, then I got up and opted to abandon the movie. And believe you me, this is not a movie that I will be returning to finish watching. Why? Well, simply because the storyline wasn't interesting or entertaining, and the characters written into the storyline were fairly bland, and also the acting performances were sort of mundane.

"Cherrypicker" was a swing and a miss. A shame really, because the synopsis definitely made the movie sound like something that could and would be a fun horror comedy to watch.

Now, I can't recommend you waste your time, money or effort on this particular movie.

My rating of "Cherrypicker" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars.

From the frozen north comes a comedy/horror so "horrible" that it sat on the shelf for two years and was given a name change. Hi-concept films (young children misinterpret love-making as a threat to their mother -- and seek retaliation) barely work for the SNL crowd, so this one was pushing the envelope even before filming started. Colin Mochrie, once considered one of Canada's best improv artists, seems lost here, as does most of the picture-perfect, airbrushed, cast. If you keep in mind that many Canadian projects enjoy government subsidies, the true source of the horror will become that much clearer.