Mr. Crocket

                       Growing up, every generation has had a children’s show that they’d spend their mornings glued to the TV because of. For me—not to age myself too much—I spent my mornings watching Captain Kangaroo, but for you, it could have been Barney or maybe Teletubbies. Whatever it was, you probably would have walked through a wall for them. That’s what makes the premise of Mr. Crocket so interesting, because it would be pretty wild if Barney was kidnapping kids to sell their souls to the devil. But the question is, does it live up to its concept? For me, I just hope this stays off the air.

Summer (Jerrika Hinton) and her son Major (Ayden Gavin) are going through a tough time as they process her husband and Major’s father’s death. As time passes, Major’s behavior steadily gets worse, and Summer is at a loss as to how to get him under control. That changes when, out of nowhere, a video tape of an old TV show called Mr. Crocket appears, and Major instantly becomes more behaved. This “present,” though, comes with strings, and soon Major goes missing—but he’s not the first kid to disappear. It turns out several children have gone missing over the past few years, leading Summer to investigate the dark backstory of Mr. Crocket (Elvis Nolasco). Now, it’s up to Summer to stop him before she loses Major forever.

Written by Carl Reid and Brandon Espy, with Espy also directing, Mr. Crocket tries to twist the innocence of the children’s shows we loved and turn it into something sinister. Although the idea is intriguing, the film doesn’t quite deliver, offering little in terms of story. Its strongest points are some of the puppetry displays and creative use of animation, but that’s not enough to save it. For me, the story runs out of steam quickly and feels flat, lacking energy. The pacing is also an issue and the underdeveloped plot make it clear that Mr. Crocket isn’t the only thing not alive—the movie itself shows little life.

Mr. Crocket does have some moments of gore, but Espy mostly plays it safe, trying to be playful while serving up a few scares. You can sense the potential, but Espy is never quite able to tap into it. The result feels deflated and tame, never getting wicked enough to give the film something memorable. Performance-wise, no one is bad—in fact, the cast is fine, and Nolasco attempts to reach the heights of horror legends, but in his case, less would have been more. I really wanted to get behind this film, but the weak writing and lack of the necessary craziness, among other faults, cause Mr. Crocket to sink shortly after it starts.