Screamfest review: 'Mr. Crocket' a bold new horror icon

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Embargo lifts Oct. 11 3:01AM ET

Mr. Crocket , on Hulu Friday, adds a memorable new monster to the horror canon. Mr. Crocket has a fun methodology for dispatching his victims and has something to say about social issues, too.

It's 1993 in Shurry Bottom, Pa., and Major (Ayden Gavin) is watching a video of the children's show, Mr. Crocket's World , (Elvis Nolasco), who leads a chorus of kids in song and dance.

When Major's father gets verbally abusive, Mr. Crocket crawls out of the VCR and teaches him a fatal lesson. This also leaves Major's mother, Summer (Jerrika Hinton), as a single mom -- and they haven't seen the last of Mr. Crocket.

Abusive fathers are worthy targets of a horror movie. Mr. Crocket acknowledges the complexities of that, too.

Some fathers may go too far with discipline, others may be negligent, but just getting rid of them doesn't necessarily make things easier for the family. Now, when Major acts up, Summer is alone.

Moreover, Mr. Crocket attracts kids like a pied piper, and kidnapping kids is definitely not OK. So, Summer goes looking for Major, and Mr. Crocket keeps popping up to scare and taunt her.

Mr. Crocket is as talkative as Freddy or Chucky , and he moralizes like Jigsaw . And like Jigsaw, Mr. Crocket is often right, but goes too far.

Mr. Crocket also has supernatural powers, a bit more whimsical than Freddy's dream logic. He's got a cadre of scary puppets, and his kills are super gory.

There is a surreal logic to how Mr. Crocket traverses the TV world and the real world. Climbing out of a VCR is a striking image, and the film plays with the barrier between screens and reality -- and Summer's dreams, as well.

Without spoiling Mr. Crocket's backstory, it involves real-world abuse and the harsh realities of the entertainment industry. Many people have to suffer both without the benefit of nightmarish revenge.

By focusing on the family unit and children's entertainment, the film explores how struggling families wish for a better environment, both by kids and parents. Mr. Crocket invents a children's show that can literally murder you as a way of showing how media sells an unrealistic dream.

Even a loving family has ups and downs, but Mr. Crocket tells children like Major he doesn't even have to listen to his attentive mother's rules. Major chooses this fantasy, not understanding what he's giving up without a family.

Major also doesn't understand he's actually been lured in by a monster. It's up to Summer to save Major literally, but also metaphorically save him from choosing what's on the screen over what's in his real life.

That makes Mr. Crocket not only stand out among recent new horror movies, but also hold up with the most enduring classics. Great horror often addresses real-world anxieties, and Mr. Crocket addresses them with insight and devilish fun.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.