Main cast: Karl Holt (Jack), Claire Cartwright (Dawn), George Collie (Richard), James Parsons (Ron), Anthony Styles (Bad Cop), and Darren Benedict (Good Cop)
Director: Karl Holt
Yes, there’s a sentient, homicidal cute stuffed toy on the loose in Benny Loves You—I am sure you can guess its name—but the true “villain”, if one can call it that, is a box that releases some kind of fog that can give toys the ability to think and act, often in a homicidal manner due to slight and abuse inflicted upon them by their owners. What this box is is never really explained, so there’s that.
Benny is very adorable, by the way, which only adds to its creepy factor so much more. Sure. its movements are jank, with it obviously being pulled around by strings and such, but seriously, that thing is evil Elmo came to life.
Anyway, the focus of this movie is on Jack. He’s the quintessential man-child that still lives with his parents because they cook, clean, and do everything for him. Sadly, a series of Final Destination-style freak accidents kill his parents while they are planning for Jack’s 35th birthday. Having to be an adult for the first time is hard for Jack, so in just 10 months down the road, the house is a disgusting mess and it is being repossessed by the bank, and he is forced to take a significant pay cut if he wanted to remain as a designer at this toy company.
When he meets Dawn, he starts listening to self-help tapes and decides to be a new person. He ditches his bum dress code for more grown-up shirts and pants, cleans up the place, and in the process boxes away all his toys, including Benny whom he’d had since he was a boy. Needless to say, when Benny comes to live, he is determined to show his affection to his best friend and make Jack love him again by gruesomely murdering anyone that stands in the way of the two of them. The fellow from the bank, the scheming colleague… and predictably enough, Dawn.
Okay, this premise is hardly original, and the movie itself will play out in a predictable manner when one has seen enough of horror films of this sort. From the loser hero somehow getting the girl that is way of his league to the toy trying to kill her, nothing here will be a surprise.
However, this movie tries to win me over in other ways. Director, screenwriter, and lead actor Karl Holt tries to distract folks with comedy and gore in order to convince them to overlook other shortcomings in his tour de force.
The comedy is hit and miss. The “jokes” fall flat more often than not, and the presence of two cops for comic effect serves to be more of an obnoxious nerve-grater. This big miss is also tied closely to another problem with this movie: the cast. I hate to say this, but Mr Holt is pretty terrible with his comedic timing here, as his mannerisms and facial expressions often fail to convey the manic emotions his character is supposed to be undergoing. He always feels wooden in every scene he is in, and the same problem extends to most of the other cast members. Delivery of lines is on the stilted “I just read the script for the first time 30 minutes before shooting my scene” manner, and these folks are either under- or over the top in their scenes.
Who knows, maybe Mr Holt is forced due to budget issues to hire all his friends, who are not necessarily top notch actors, to be in this movie for cheap, or maybe he really thinks he is a better comedic actor than he actually is. The end result is still a miss when it comes to what passes for wit in this movie.
The gore, on the other hand, is deliciously fun. Sure, some of the effects look cheap and fake, but I can overlook them because the overall effect of such gruesome nonsense committed by this cute soft toy that can barely animate itself is fiendishly hilarious. Also, I laugh out loud when Jack’s parents die. Don’t look at me; Mr Holt wants me to laugh, okay, and I can only oblige because that scene is evil, probably juvenile, comedy done well.
In other words, Benny Loves You only works as a horror comedy when it comes to scenes involving a stuffed toy being a psycho in twisted and nasty ways. Things fall flat whenever it shifts to the human characters, and yes, things are quite not right here when the stuffed toy is the most animated one of all the characters in here.
The gore and the humorous slaughter scenes will make this one worth a look, I feel, for fans of films with psycho toys and cute things gone wild. Just be prepared to wince each time the toy is not in the scene!
