Grimcutty combines the “parents should listen to their children” trope with an investigative horror story to present an at best passable low stake affair. A muddled message sinks the potential for a fun final act despite the cast’s best efforts. Grimcutty is streaming now on Hulu.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Grimcutty
Directed by John Ross
Written by John Ross
Starring Sara Wolfkind, Shannyn Sossamon and Usman Ally
Grimcutty Review
There’s no mistaking who Grimcutty is made for. With a central message that parents should listen to their children and parental fears do more harm than intended, it’s difficult to miss. Unfortunately, for every interesting idea the movie introduces it follows up with something to make you check back out. What could have been a fun modest monster movie gets lost in its own attempt to send a message.
An internet meme has parents frightened when the kids who come across it start stabbing themselves. Believing they’re all acting in service of some internet challenge; they lock away all the technology the kids can get their hands on. As her parents’ hysteria grows, Asha (Sarah Wolfkind) searches out the origins and meaning of the Grimcutty while trying to stave off the manifestation of Grimcutty itself.
Most of Grimcutty is a good old fashioned investigative horror movie. Something strange is happening and our lead must search out exactly what is going on. Smile did this to better effect recently, but it had the advantage of its plot not being quite as silly. Both movies share the same basic concept. An entity only the afflicted can see is after them. The differences in execution are substantial, however.
Grimcutty is a very low stakes horror movie. It features some worthwhile moments of the creature attacking while remaining invisible to anyone seeing the attack, thus giving the impression that all these teens are suicidal. Sadly, those moments are fleeting. The stakes remain so low because most everyone manages to quickly get away to see another day. Some early scenes attempt to bring suspense but mostly the encounters are a bland experience.
After a point the movie ramps up an attempt to send a message, but this too falls mostly flat. Parents who refuse to believe their children are a staple in horror movies. Grimcutty takes this one step further by having the fears and paranoia of the parents fuel the monster’s attacks. It’s not the worst idea but it never quite congeals into the statement the film seems to think it is.
The cast does what they can with a script that is sometimes too silly to take seriously and sometimes too self-serious to have fun with. There’s not a bad performance in the bunch, and they do succeed in making Grimcutty an easy watch at least. It’s just too rarely a fun one.
As for the internet meme monster…It kind of works in the shadow of the dark corner of a room. Too often it is given center stage in daylight and comes across as silly. The monster fails so often to do actual damage that he quickly is stripped of any worry of true danger anyway.
Eventually we get to the bottom of the Grimcutty story, at least as much as they’re willing to explain, and the story limps to its conclusion. The number of questions they leave unanswered would be an annoyance in a better movie…but you are unlikely to care here. It’s a waste of a cast that is giving everything they have in some ridiculous scenes with even more ridiculous dialogue.
The message Grimcutty wants to leave you with is that better communication between parents and their children will ease fears on both sides. That’s a fine message and a decent start at crafting the allegory of a horror film. Unfortunately, the movie fails to create any fun or suspense in the buildup and then becomes so bogged down in delivering its statement that it sets attempting to generate them aside completely.
Scare Value
Grimcutty shows some potential during its 100-minute running time. Unfortunately, every instance is inevitably snuffed out by silliness or over seriousness. The cast does everything they can to keep the movie watchable but inevitably they too are crushed under the weight of bad decisions. Teens who feel unheard and underseen may get something out of Grimcutty‘s muddled blame game. All others should probably invest their time elsewhere.
2/5
Links
Grimcutty Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Grimcutty, check out Werewolf by Night
One thought on “Grimcutty Review”