Mr. Crocket

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 ****

Discount Freddy wants to be your friend to the end!

Continuing into Ahhctober 2024 we have Mr. Crocket, a very bland supernatural TV host who only wishes to protect kids from their bad parents. Too bad he only has a fraction of charisma Richard Pryor had. (Yes, he reminded me of the late, great Pryor.)

This is another movie that's trying to cash-in on nostalgia. Yesterday, for Ahhctober 2024, I watched Deer Camp '86 that obviously took place in the mid-80s but barely put any effort into that illusion. This one, a decade later in 1993 and the only thing tying it to that year was VCRs.

I didn't mind this supernatural horror. It's campy and, at times, pretty gory. Plus, SOME of the jump scares, even when I forecasted their arrival, were effective. And it's harmless/leave your brain at the door, horror fun. The unfortunate thing was, again, Mr. Crocket's a pretty mid villain.

Anyone can see the Freddy influences and everyone can see Robert Englund's a bucket-full more effective than Elvis Nolasco playing the title character here. Additionally, I sincerely doubt the kids these ages would've been so enthralled in this Blues Clues/Pee Wee's Playhouse downgrade.

Still, overall, it's inoffensive fun. Watch for some good gore and bad parents getting their due.

***

Final Thoughts: I kept thinking Five Nights at Freddy's even though it's only a slight carbon copy. I can see the influences, but it's not even at FNAF-levels.

To be honest, I have no idea what to make of this...movie. I originally thought it was a kids' "horror," like Goosebumps or Hocus Pocus. It's clear in a big way during the first two minutes that it's not.

It straddles that line between kids and adults, though: kids in the acting and special effects, adult in the gore and swearing. Also, I think they ripped the music from E. T.

Ssssooo, what the frig did I just watch? I *still* have no idea.

Don't bother with it if you have anything else on your watch list. But if you don't, check it out. It's a weird movie: a weirdness crossed between you watching someone do something stupid and you're embarrassed for them and you watching someone do something unexpected and you're calling 911 on them.

So check it out if you like practical effects from the 80s and acting from Sleepaway Camp. If not, Event Horizon is due for another viewing.

A Nightmare On Elm Street meets The Ring - except Freddy is a children's show host and the deadly cassette tape is the host's old school public access TV children's show.

There were choices made that prevented Mr. Crocket from being a near-perfect horror romp, but it's still entertaining as hell and has what it takes to become a cheesy annual Halloween staple! It's a hodgepodge of over-the-top horror campiness and gore, emotional family drama, derivative investigation sequences, and a fun yet legitimately menacing villain.

Elvis Nolasco as the titular character 110% knew the assignment and helped create an iconic horror villain! So much so, I feel like the movie would have suffered without Nolasco's self-aware performance. He fully embodies the genuinely innocent children's show host, even in the most frightening scenarios (except for a few moments when it made sense to break away).

Another thing that made this movie worthwhile was its use of practical gore, sets, and puppetry. It made the decades-old children show feel tangible and nostalgic, and really elevated the campy scenes of violence and doom. When digital FX is used, it's cheesy and feels out of place. I could only imagine how amazing it would've been if they instead used analog video manipulation and distorting; this approach would've fit with in the world of the movie and it would've made those scenes much, much scarier.

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.