Jack (played by director Karl Holt) is a pretty sad man-child but a harmless type. He is also an undeniably talented toy designer who hits a really hard time. His parents with whom he lived in a large unaffordable house die in a bizarre birthday accident (his fortieth, just five years early… ) leaving repossession looming; his strange pug obsessed boss at Toy Box sacks him and the rehires him on half pay and threatens to sack him again; and his rival from work Richard (who has escaped from an 80s wine bar it seems and pronounces his name Reesharde) has the hot toy in a somewhat weirdly disturbing remote control robot.
So, Jack, inspired by a self-help guru tape, decides to sort his life out and put aside childish things, to face the world as an adult on his own two feet. Unfortunately, he includes in this putting away his childhood friend and protector-from-the-closet-monster; the lovely floppy eared and waist-coated happy little Benny (think Elmo on acid).
Understandably poor Benny is a little put out by this and comes to life to demonstrate his love and devotion for Jack by…. er…. well he has a large kitchen knife and Jack wakes to a massacre of his other teddies. Slashed, decapitated and innards hanging out. It surely couldn’t have been little Benny the only survivor and that knife oddly close to his paw…. Could it?
And then things get a bit Jackson Pollack…. On the plus side though, Jack has inspiration to save his job and draws some welcome feminine attention from engineer Dawn (Claire Cartwright) who has a nicely suggestive way of talking to him (“You bring the toys, I bring the back end…. “). Together Jack, Dawn and Benny as a model seem to be on fire designing a range of ‘Scare Bears’ , the future looks bright. What could possibly go wrong?
Well Benny mostly.
Low budget and with some….ah…interesting characters (the police round there are truly weird..) this is nevertheless a deliriously and wonderfully silly film. The gore flies as Benny jumps, hops and scuttles through the cast. Truces are made, broken and remade and there is a great showdown with unexpected intruders. And there’s spaghetti hoops.
Filmed over five years, as is often the case, Benny Loves You overcomes these obstacles with love, inspiration and sheer verve. Corners aren’t really cut, just avoided altogether with a little thought and a lot of work. There are little nods and homages to various 80s films and horror franchises (the ET one genuinely made me laugh) which let its heart show through.
An unexpected excellent quality, particularly these days of 90 minute films spread over 140, is it is so well paced. There was a place, a moment where I thought “Right, this is where it starts to drag” but it wriggled and Benny did his little dance and it just didn’t.
Benny himself is a delight. A simple, happy, bouncy, helpful little soul if a tad homicidal. An innocent in many respects. His movements have all the ‘walking on air’ style of being walked by an invisible child’s hand. His limited but weirdly expressive dialogue loop somehow makes his actions all the worse… “Ta-da!” begins to take on a whole new meaning by the end. But when he says Benny Loves You, you know the little chap (or chapess – like Bugs Bunny he seems to be happy cross -dressing) really means it. I mean he kills people but that doesn’t make him a bad person does it?
Coming across like a homicidal version of Toy Story meets Animaniacs, Benny Loves you is a charming find. I’m not saying this is the best film ever, but if you need a smile, a little warm “aawww…” and don’t mind a lot of blood, little Benny might well make you very happy indeed.
They are also doing a run of plushies. That speak.
All I can say is if you buy one don’t throw it away. Ever.
Gizmo
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