Director: Danishka Esterhazy
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Attending a taping of his favorite show, a young boy and his family hoping for a fun birthday celebration are suddenly faced with the deadly reality that the performers have snapped and started killing everyone at the shooting causing them to find the real reason for the performers to go on their spree and get away alive.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough slasher outing. Among the greater features here is the film’s fun setup to the entire premise of the show. Tapping into the nostalgia of children’s morning cartoon/variety shows to deal with the early moments of the cheesy characters going through the early run-through of their show which gets us involved in their world rather nicely and gives a reason for the devotion to the characters. Being backstage at the show and seeing the setup and preparations for a taping with what goes into it, there’s a rather enjoyable air that sets up the robots to become the killers later on which plays into the idea of the lovable mascots going on a rampage. The finale of the film, where they get to explore the real motivation of the killer robots hoarding the abducted children into the bowels of the studio for a fully demented and over-the-top variation of the show that’s exceptionally enjoyable for how dark it gets in front of kids, makes for a great conclusion to this story and takes the idea of the animatronic killers doing it on their own to absurd levels.
As well, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had with the general slasher attitude present. The setup early on about the performers and their true identity, which is nicely previewed here with the interaction outside the stage and then turns into a fine series of short stalking scenes that rely heavily on their unassuming nature of the robots’ ulterior nature creates a lot of fun to be had here. The first attacks on the incidental members of the crew provide some decent moments, while the later scenes featuring their rampage on the guests have a lot to like here with the creatures getting to utilize quite creative and original methods of killing them. From spraying a homemade flamethrower in their face to being sawed in half in a magician’s trick gone wrong, having their head hammered open, fingers broken off and featuring another victim completely pulled into several pieces, that these are accomplished through fantastic practical effects is a fantastic aspect that adds even more to the film. These here are what hold this one up over it’s few flaws.
There are some big problems with this one though. The main issue here is an unbelievably underwhelming story that has plenty of big issues here. The fact that there’s nothing given for huge plot holes in the film as for why exactly the characters are animatronic robots for the show, whether it’s been that way from the very beginning of the run or when they switched and why. It can’t be a cost-cutting measure to have the characters switched out from performers in fuzzy suits to these large, cumbersome robots that are slow and unwieldy, and why no one questions this revelation despite at times switching between being surprised that they’re robots to knowing all along which together make for excessively detrimental and distracting efforts. There’s also nothing about why they’re going on the rampage, as it seems to be a faulty programming update completely by accident that they can’t stop to times where the head programmer is making them evil, perhaps doing so out of revenge for the show being canceled but the scene showing this is done before the reveal making that quite curious.
That also doesn’t help with the piling on of utterly moronic cliches that aren’t related to the robots on the rampage, from the constant splitting up in the factory knowing there’s something wrong and the general lack of energy or reaction to anything going on around them. The kids have no idea what’s going with a completely expected sideplot involving the adulterous husband so to see him involved later on with the murderous creatures elicits nothing despite knowing what they’re doing at the time which just ends up making this feel tonally disconnected from the majority of the actions presents here as the characters here are just bland, one-dimensional stereotypes meant to appeal to modern audiences which just makes for an obnoxious time here with this random assortment of characters that have no bearing or connection to anything around them. On top of that, with some awful effects work for the kills when they move away from the practical and go for the CGI also lowering this one, there are some problems here.
Overview: ***.5/5
While there’s plenty to like in terms of being a slasher, the rest of the film has several big issues that make for a problematic at best effort which isn’t even taking nostalgia into the equation which may or may not appeal to some. Give it a shot if it looks intriguing or are in the mood for a brain-dead, no-frills slasher but those looking for something much more cohesive and complete a film should heed caution with this one.
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