Review #57: 'Mikey' (1992)

One of the forgotten films of those to feel the wrath of the 80's and 90's censorship madness, Mikey has a more genuinely sinister feel to it than the others. Still banned outright in the UK, it tells the story of a young boy name Mikey Holt (Brian Bonsall). We see him first of all getting told off by his adoptive parents for lighting a fire inside the house, so he gains revenge by murdering the lot of them. The father especially gets it bad as he receives a baseball bat to the head from our pubeless protagonist. Unable to solve the murder, the police are quick to relocate Mikey with a new family, who at first warm to their loveable new son. But as he falls for his best friend's sister, and his behaviour starts to get stranger, his school teacher begins to suspect something is not quite right.

Generally thought of as being a 'video nasty', this wasn't actually on the official government list. Strange, considering it is far worse than the majority of the others. What it does share with a lot of the ones that did make the list, such as The Driller Killer (1979) and Blood Feast (1963), is that it does lack in quality. Mikey obviously has a bit of a budget, but it's filmed in that TV Movie Of The Week style that makes it look like it should star Shannon Tweed. A lot of the plot developments either don't make sense or are just unrealistic, such as his current teacher phoning his old school and asking them about Mikey (as she suspects something is amiss), only for the teacher on the other end of the phone to give her everything she knows about him straight away. The film has been compared to Child's Play (1988), but Mikey doesn't share the former's comic humour. A decent idea, but the film can't seem to escape it's exploitation roots.


Directed by: Dennis Dimster
Starring: Brian Bonsall, Josie Bissett, Ashley Laurence
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie