Mikey

Mikey is a pretty hardcore slasher flick when the villian who you should fear is not a guy in the hockey mask or a guy can kill you in your dream but the most harmless person in the world:A child.The movie is not messing around with viewer cause about 5 minutes in the movie Mikey the main character already kill his adoptive family start off with the drowning of a little girl.The subject behind Mikey is disturbing and not easy to understand but don't take it seriously cause put all the spychological stuff aside Mikey is still cheesy as hell.

I laughed throughout this movie, so in that sense it was highly entertaining! I'm not sure if it was supposed to be a dark comedy or just so bad it's good. I had it recommended to me after asking for evil child movies. For whatever reason, it's a trope I love!

This one certainly fit the bill, complete with cheesy one-liners. I remember Brian Bonsall in Family Ties so it was fun to see him play the adorable but murderous waif. Parts were slow but the beginning was off to a good start and the ending was so over the top ludicrous that I actually LOLed. I'm almost surprised this doesn't have better cult status. Fun if you want to be entertained by bad horror.

This entry into the taboo 'killer kid' horror sub-genre involves 9 year old Mikey. The first scene shows him slaughtering his entire adoptive family (yes, really) in one fell swoop. Whats more, hes videotaped the whole thing for his later entertainment. Mikey is found hiding in a closet by the police officers investigating who could have done this. After fobbing them off with a fake description of the perpetrator he is then placed up for adoption.

The majority of the film is centred around Mikey's new life with his new family. He starts out by looking every bit the model angelic child but then red flags start to appear. Then the number of 'accidents' and casualties starts to grow.

The power of this film is that it was filmed and feels like a TV movie. It adheres to this genre's conventions but subverts it because of it's controversial subject matter. This juxtaposition works amazingly well especially as the film pulls no punches when it comes to the truly sadistic and brutal deeds of it's central character. The performance of Brian Bonsall is pitch perfect as the psychopathic child. It's also great to see Ashley Laurence from Hellraiser fame make an appearance as Mikey's concerned teacher.

This film was actually made for the 'straight to video' market in the US but was then to be released theatrically in the UK. The film was submitted for a certificate to the BBFC and was awarded an 18 cert in November 1992. But then things took an unexpected turn. The abduction of toddler James Bulger by two other children dominated the news in February of the next year and the media was stating how horror films and specifically home videos must be the cause. A number of films that had been released were targetted with Childs Play 3 taking most of the blame. The Daily Mail (who else) noted how Mikey was a future release and involved a child killer. Surely this couldn't be released now, could it, they opined. Head of the BBFC, James Ferman then took the unprecedented step of taking back the 18 certificate that had been granted to Mikey and banning it outright. It's hard to believe that this happened but it did. Mikey was resubmitted for a certificate in 1996 but was rejected. The film is still banned in the UK.

BUT, it's on YouTube.

This film was actually banned in Britain since it was due for release in the same year as two ten-year-old boys abducted, tortured and murdered a two-year-old child. To this day, I don't understand that decision since nothing Mikey does reaches the scale of what those two sadistic monsters did nor does Mikey ever attempt to harm complete innocents but chooses his victims from people who have done him 'wrong'.

Anyway, I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy and I have to say, I'm quite glad I did. It's definitely not a film to be taken seriously but it can be rather funny if viewed as a dark comedy. Obviously, there's huge plot holes such as how a ten-year-old can move from place-to-place without anyone checking on his background and why these people were able to adopt him in a matter of days. However, there is something slightly humorous in watching the rather stupid adults be played by a young, calculating boy.

A seemingly innocent and sweet little boy causes murder and mayhem in his new neighborhood and falls for the teenage girl next-door.

As others have pointed out, this film has sort of the same feel as "The Stepfather", except the killer is now a little boy instead of a seemingly caring new dad. Of course, "The Stepfather" is the better movie, but that's no secret.

I do think the film needs to be brought into the light. I had not heard of it until a book by T. S. Kord made me aware, and then when I went to watch it on Hulu, I found the picture quality was not the greatest and the film was cut for full-screen. With horror veterans Mimi Craven and Ashley Laurence, as well as Lyman Ward, it seems like this would be a good film for Scream Factory to pick up.