Summary
A weak offering to the horror genre that tries to send an important message about kids and social media, but it ends up lost in the spam folder.
Our review of the Hulu horror film Grimcutty does not contain spoilers.
Hulu’s Grimcutty is a horror film written and directed by John Ross (mostly known for short features such as Things are Really Insane). With a cast comprising both newcomers (Sara Wolfkind and Callan Farris) and TV veterans (Usman Ally and Shannyn Sossamon), the film centers on a Slenderman-type entity created by the power of helicopter parent paranoia.
The film starts with a mother who locks her child in his bedroom, seemingly to protect him from the Grimcutty. She then proceeds to research internet challenges and articles about internet-based anxiety while listening to a fear-mongering podcast on the dangers of the online world. Her child manages to escape his room, he’s pursued by the creature and then stabs his mother out of nowhere.
We then cut to our main character. Overprotective parents, Amir and Leah, implemented “phone-free family outings” after their teenage daughter, Asha, quit the track team so she can pursue the glamorous life of an ASMR content creator. Soon, all the parents in town start talking to their teenagers about something called “the Grimcutty challenge.” No one seems to know what the challenge actually is, yet the parents are convinced their offspring are engaging in self-harm as part of the mysterious online craze. So, of course, they decide the most reasonable solution is to remove all devices from their children and place them in a “detox box.” In reality, the Grimcutty is an actual threat to the town’s kids, but not in the way these parents think.
While there’s an interesting premise to this horror flick, the execution is below sub-par. The acting is terrible. The parents are all one-dimensional and beyond irrational. The plot has more holes in it than a wheel of Swiss cheese. It’s a movie about parents who don’t understand the internet, made by people who clearly don’t understand the internet. The idea that all the parents in one community would remove their teenage kids’ laptops altogether because of some 2020s version of the Satanic Panic is beyond preposterous. Laptops and online access are essential to getting schoolwork done. It’s been the case for at least a decade.
As for the monster, the Grimcutty looks like the popular creepypasta creature, Slenderman, created in the late 2000s on an online forum. But, unlike The Slenderman, Grimcutty comes with a standard-issued creepy face. And due to some bad CGI, the apparition is anything but scary.
As I mentioned earlier, the film’s main character Asha is an ASMR content creator. None of the promotional material for this movie prepared me for the amount of ASMR-type scenes included in this film. The first 20-minutes and the last five were almost unbearable to watch, so I was forced to mute it. Some people enjoy ASMR videos, they’re popular for a reason, but for others, it’s an almost painful experience. If you’re part of the second group, I’d suggest giving this one a miss. Including an element of internet culture that can trigger such intense and opposing responses was an interesting decision, to say the least. Had it been released in theatres, Grimcutty may have likely become infamous for walk-outs. And I guess that’s not a bad thing for a horror movie.
Overall, Grimcutty is a weak offering to the horror genre. It tries to send an important message about kids and social media, but it ends up in the spam folder. The use of ASMR was painful, yet I’m aware many will love it. That is certainly one creative way to divide your audience.
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