A Parent’s Worst Fears are Realized in the Terrifying TV World of Mr. Crocket (FANTASTIC)
Title: Mr. Crocket
First Non-Festival Release: October 11, 2024 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)
Director: Brandon Espy
Writer: Carl Reid, Brandon Espy
Runtime: 88 Minutes
Starring: Jerrika Hinton, Ayden Gavin, Kristolyn Lloyd
Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here
This film’s review was written after its screening at the Fantastic Film Festival in 2024.
As a child, it’s easy to get lost into another world when life isn’t going well. Without loving, supportive, and present parents it can be hard for kids to find appropriate outlets for navigating life.
Major (Ayden Gavin) is having trouble accepting the death of his father, which leads to his mother, Summer (Jerrika Hinton), at a loss at how to parent by herself. Inexplicably, she comes across a video tape of a children’s television show and decides to put it on for Major one day, hoping it will distract him enough from giving her a hard time at home. Unfortunately for her, this tape contains a show run by Mr. Crocket (Elvis Nolasco), the spirit of a slain children’s television show host who will stop at nothing to collect the souls of neglected and abused children.
A thoroughly entertaining supernatural slasher, Mr. Crocket delivers us a new horror icon.
While its central premise isn’t anything new, Mr. Crocket engenders goodwill by building a world that feels surreal in its darkness but grounded in its softness for family. Life is difficult for Summer and Major after losing the family patriarch. Summer’s patience and love for Major is tested by his seemingly unusual response to his father’s death. Summer’s approach is of love and support, even if she feels like she needs someone of her own to lean on. The tenderness juxtaposes the overall gloomy despair of their small town. There’s a distinct lack of happiness in the air from the moment Mr. Crocket begins at the funeral and it doesn’t stop from there. This sets the scene for how easy it is for Major to fall victim to the allure of Mr. Crocket’s promises.
Although it is set in the 90s, much of the anxieties surrounding children’s media consumption can be paralleled by today’s iPad baby culture. There’s something so tempting about being able to placate a child’s attention even if it means shoving them in front of technology. Problems arise when parents don’t vet these sources of entertainment hard enough nor limit the exposure to screen time itself. This is evident in today’s society where many teachers are reporting an overwhelming number of disturbing cases of kids defying authority, throwing tantrums, and acting out in other ways. Major’s journey is chronicled in his defiance of his mother’s insistence to limit, not even completely eradicate his viewing of Mr. Crocket, his screen time. It’s not even because of its content but because of his unnaturally captivated manner. The vacant stare and flurry of insults breakthrough in a tragic way that’s all too familiar to modern audiences.
By the time Mr. Crocket reaches its third act, viewers are transported to kiddie hell wrapped in the veneer of a crumbling variety show set. This is when Mr. Crocket gets to lean into the fun parts of its premise, where a demented clock and evil moon entity add dimension to the universe with a dash of dark whimsy. The set design is inspired in its warped bright colors and twisted take on children’s show staples. By making the once helpful childhood figures sinister, Mr. Crocket warps the innocence of the viewer, even though the children are oblivious. It’s a neat physical manifestation of the themes of nostalgia and media consumption and plays as well as it does because it recalls familiar imagery from other similar childhood television shows.
Stealing the show, however, is Elvis Nolasco’s diabolical performance as the supernatural children’s tv show host. Mr. Crocket is a fun villain not only from his interesting characterization but because of Nolasco’s performance. Reveling in causing pain to parents, who in his own mind, are evil, Mr. Crocket believes that he is doing good underneath all the hellfire. His motivations may be warped by his deal with the devil, but his actions are demonic all the same in their wake. Nolasco plays the hell out of Mr. Crocket. Every line delivery is simmering with the cheeriness of Mr. Rogers while his eyes gleam with the twinkle of Freddy Kruger. Cracking jokes while murdering parents with sentient chairs, he simultaneously waxes poetic about his paradise of a television show for abused kids. Without Nolasco’s dedicated performance, Mr. Crocket would not be nearly as impactful.
A thoroughly entertaining supernatural slasher, Mr. Crocket does its job of delivering memorable kills, serviceable thrills, and gut busting one-liners. Sure, its story might be one we’ve seen plenty of times before, but it delivers enough fun riffs on its material to justify its familiarity. Mr. Crocket himself is a deliciously fun villain that aches to return for a sequel, with special thanks to Nolasco’s performance. Bright, gory, and all-together fun, Mr. Crocket is crowd-pleasing horror goodness that shouldn’t be left neglected in your streaming queue.
Overall Score? 8/10
