Jack, a man desperate to improve his life, throws away his beloved childhood plush, Benny. It’s a move that has disastrous consequences when Benny springs to life with deadly intentions.
I love horror and comedy, though it’s quite difficult to successfully blend the contrasting genres. Relative newcomer Karl Holt shot, wrote, edited, and directed this mess and clearly needed an executive producer or someone to revise. After an annoying prologue, “Benny Loves You” moves to the countryside of England where Jack (Karl Holt), a thirty-year-old man living with his parents is still behaving like a child. He designs products for a toy company whose latest commercial crops the brand’s name to read AIDS and while I’ve always been disappointed that someone would find that disease funny it’s particularly passé these days. Holt’s screenplay constantly attempts to be subversive but it feels like it was written by a schoolyard prat trying to be cheeky.
On his birthday, Jack’s girlfriend dumps him and his parents are killed in a freak accident while baking his cake. After Jack rediscovers his childhood toy, Benny, a red toy resembling Elmo, there’s a flood of happy memories. In an attempt to grow up, Jack discards Benny which magically brings the stuffed animal to life.
Predictably, Benny begins slashing anyone that inconveniences Jack, and his catchphrases spoken in a falsetto voice lack any modicum of wit. He also kills dogs and cats and plays with their carcasses. I don’t know who in their right mind would enjoy countless shots of a dead dog being tossed and played with but clearly, Holt has a warped sense of humor. His editing, filled with odd foreshadowing cuts and montages, is migraine-inducing but the real killer is the running time. I’d skip this and watch the original “Child’s Play” instead but NOT the Aubrey Plaza CGI reboot.
In Select Theaters May 7th, On-Demand May 11th, and on Blu-ray June 8th
3.4k
20k
1.5k
1.3k