Mr. Crocket
Directed by Brandon Espy
Written by Brandon Espy and Carl Reid
Starring: Jerrika Hinton, Elvis Nolasco, Ayden Gavin, Kristolyn Lloyd
Unrated
Runtime: 88 minutes
Streaming on Hulu October 11

by Jenika McCrayer, Staff Writer

I love going into to reviews completely blind, and I have to say the that benign synopsis I read does not prepare the viewer for how fucked up the movie can be at times (complimentary). Here’s the synopsis provided by Hulu:

“In 1993, a mysterious children’s show host, Mr. Crocket, magically emerges from television sets to kidnap young children, brutally slaying their parents in the process. After Mr. Crocket snatches her son, one determined mother embarks on a perilous quest to track down the demonic entertainer and rescue her boy.”

Ok, so maybe the synopsis is only benign to a horror fanatic like me. But I guess was lured into a false sense of security. How scary can a children’s show host be? I got my answer as I watched most of the cold open through my fingers. A children’s show host can be terrifying and menacing, actually.

I won’t spoil it for you, but after the (very) cold open, we meet the recently widowed Summer (Jerrika Hinton) and her son Major (Ayden Gavin). Major has been lashing out at his mother after his father’s passing. One day, a little library magically appears on Summer and Majors’ front lawn, and Summer finds Mr. Crocket’s (Elvis Nolasco) VHS inside. Major becomes obsessed with the tape and spends most of his time under Mr. Crocket’s spell. Summer eventually reaches her breaking point and lashes out at Major and sends him to his room. Later that evening, Summer is powerless to stop Mr. Crocket kidnapping Major.

She eventually meets other parents Eddie (Alex Akpobome) and Rhonda (Kristolyn Lloyd) who also lost their children to Mr. Crocket. Rhonda has built a psychic connection with Mr. Crocket through various television sets and is able to discover Mr. Crocket’s next target. The trio uses this information to track down their children and hopefully put an end to Mr. Crocket’s reign of terror.

Let’s start with the pros of the film: the special effects and puppetry are amazing. You can tell a lot of love and attention went into the set designs, the monstrous puppets, and special effects. Elvis Nolasco’s Mr. Crocket is a charismatic and creepy character with a shit-eating grin reminiscent of fellow baby-snatcher Freddy Krueger. Nolasco nailed the unsettling duality of the charming children’s program host and the monster that lurks behind those primary colors.

The writing is weak, and I wish the script showed more instead of having the characters explicitly state what’s happening and what will happen. The script doesn’t allow suspense to build. At one point, we see a neighbor gossiping to Summer about dead(beat) dad, a smashed television, and his missing kid, and without missing a beat Summer exclaims, “he’s killing parents and taking more kids!” This is a laughable revelation given she only had her own experience and a neighbor’s gossip to go on. I usually applaud a heroine who doesn’t waste time with self-doubt, but she has this a-ha moment 40 minutes into the movie.

The fact that Mr. Crocket is an expansion of a short of the same name–featured in the third season of Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween series–makes sense: it has enough fresh ideas and themes to be a feature-length film, but doesn’t spend enough time giving us a reason to connect with the characters or keep up momentum. Major and Summer are mourning, but we don’t get a chance to fully appreciate the immense tragedy of losing a husband and father. Summer wastes no time finding out what happened to her son, and good for her, but where’s the tension? Where’s the drama? The open-ended conclusion also falls flat because we never truly connect to the characters to care what happens to them after the credits roll.

Mr. Crocket has some great moments, and Mr. Crocket himself is a definite contender for Children’s Nightmare Fuel, along with greats like Krueger and Chucky. The film should be viewed for Nolasco’s performance alone, but the weak writing means it falls short of becoming a new horror favorite.