Imagine you are in your room on a dark night. You have just climbed into bed and are ready to sleep, and then you hear a noise. A familiar one. The sound of your old childhood toy. You open your eyes, and your toy greats you with a horrifying smile and a knife in its hand. If you enjoyed that description, then you are bound to love Benny Loves You. 

The plot revolves around a nobody named Jack (Karl Holt) dealing with the loss of his parents and a failing work career. In an attempt to reinvent himself, he decides to throw out his old toys. This includes his favorite childhood stuffed animal named Benny. Benny then returns to Jack completely alive and begins to cause trouble within Jack’s life. Benny Loves You makes fun of the slasher sub-genre by using childhood humor mixed with gallons of blood to achieve its message creating a funny satirical horror film. 

 The biggest flaw of the film is the cinematography. I really enjoyed the choppiness of the camera from a filming standpoint. It makes it feel look it could happen to anyone, which added to the uniqueness of the film. Although sometimes there were weird cuts and angles, it doesn’t take away from the movie. Despite all of this, the film cinematically seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It goes for jump scares at certain scenes, and at other scenes, it has Avengers-style fight scenes. It seems to change tone throughout, which can be good; I just wish it had been done more smoothly.

One of the most memorable parts of Benny Loves You was the use of blood throughout the film. Blood is everywhere in this film, but it is more than meaningless gore. It had a place and added a lot of color to the film. It also was used for comedic effect as well as an emphasis on certain parts of the setting. Even though there were parts where I watched in disgust as blood flew across my screen, in all fairness, it looked beautiful. 

Easily the best part of this film is the actors. While sometimes the plot seemed slow and bland, the actors continued to do a fantastic job of making memorable characters. When the tension rises between the characters, specifically Jack, Dawn (Claire Cartwright), Richard (George Collie), and the two cops (Anthony Styles & Darren Benedict), they respond perfectly. All these characters make an amazing comedic team that I could watch for hours. 

Benny Loves You is a movie for everyone. It gives horror fans plenty some great jump scares and moments of terror. On the other hand, it provides movie lovers, in general, an excuse to hang out with friends on the couch and laugh over the humor of the film. Overall, Benny Loves You is a nice refresh from the slasher genre and does a great job of giving the genre life again through character building.

7 out of 10