Mr. Crocket (2024), directed by Brandon Espy, stars Jerrika Hinton, Elvis Nolasco, Ayden Gavin, Alex Akpobome, and Kristolyn Lloyd. The film follows Summer (Hinton), a single mother who embarks on a supernatural quest to save her son (Gavin) from the demonic spirit of the disgraced children’s show host, Mr. Crocket (Nolasco). 

The performances here are inoffensive a majority of the time, but occasionally they’re just outright bad. It doesn’t help that the script does the absolute bare minimum to establish anything unique about them. They’re pretty much just the most cookie-cutter cast of horror movie characters you’re bound to see. The only bright spot in the cast is Elvis Nolasco as the titular Mr. Crocket. His acting chops aren’t always the most impressive, but the unhinged zaniness of the character makes up for it. He’s an off-the-wall, zany horror villain – often coming across as a mix of Freddy Krueger, Mr. Rodgers, and Steve Harvey. The movie can often be a drag due to its weak characters and lack of original ideas, but whenever Mr. Crocket is on screen, it’s a serviceably fun experience. The unfortunate part is that Crocket is always accompanied by cartoonish animatronic monsters that just come off as silly. It’s nice that these effects are mostly practical, giving off a Gooosebumps flavor. The thing is, it’s also similar to Goosebumps in the sense that the lack of budget shows on screen. 

The film features a typical “I have to save my kid from the bad guy” plot and is consistently unoriginal to the point where it features a sequence in which a character researches the villain’s history through newspaper clippings at the library. Not only have I seen this trope countless times before, but I’m pretty sure those records would be on a computer database by now. It’s also just far too silly throughout for the audience to take seriously even as a comedy. The comedy always feels dumb as opposed to funny and it just results in consistent eye-rolling. 

There’s a predictable twist in the film’s climax that I wouldn’t feel the need to mention, but the script makes a strange move by revealing the twist to the audience and then revealing it to the characters 2 min later. It’s an odd choice that just results in two reveals of the same thing back to back. Unless it’s used for some kind of tension-building, information should be revealed to both the audience and characters simultaneously.

Overall, this a mostly forgettable Halloween streaming release that’s only saved by its entertaining title character and unique, Goosebumps-esque visual style. Other than that, you’ll probably be bored into oblivion by the forgettable characters, weak performances, and silly dialogue. You’ve seen this plot countless times before, so unless you’re intrigued by the idea of Mr. Crocket, you can skip this one. C-