The Banana Splits Movie (2019)
Directed by: Danishka Esterhazy
Sometimes the craziest idea can make a good horror movie. Like lets take a kid’s tv show from the late 60s and make it into a slasher film. Sounds nuts but somehow it works. Borrowing heavily from Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Banana Splits Movie accomplishes just that. I was able to catch this on the Syfy app, after a suggestion from a coworker.
The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was a live action, variety program made by Hanna-Barbera in the late 1960s. The show then ran in syndication in the 70s and early 80s. The movie takes the characters of Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky and makes them into animatronic machines. The network executive tells the producer that the show is being cancelled which causes the robots to go haywire. Now the fans that stuck around after the show for a tour are in danger. The adults being murdered, the children being captured. Meanwhile there is a family going to the show taping for the youngest son’s birthday. He brings along a friend, his mother, father, and older brother. The movie shows a little depth in story by giving the main characters some personality and backstory, which is nice to see in a low budget movie. There is tension between the father and the oldest son, the oldest son isn’t the man’s son, only the youngest, or at least that’s how I took it. Either way the oldest son Austin doesn’t care for Mitch the dad, for good reason when they find out later, he’s cheating on his wife. So now the family is fighting for their lives while the crazed robots hunt down all the visitors. I won’t give away more, because this literally just came out on October 12th.
The acting is fairly decent for a movie that debuted on Syfy. The youngest boy Harley (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) is fairly decent for a kid. He captures the innocent and somewhat immature personality of the boy. The mother is also alright, she’s played by Dani Kind. Romeo Carere plays Austin the older son, he does a solid job of being the awkward and rebellious teenager. Steve Lund plays Mitch the cheating father/step father. He’ s a douche, and you just hate him so I guess he did a good job? The camera work was fairly well done too. Nothing too great but interesting enough to keep you entertained and not distracted.
Much like other slashers, the special effects are where this movie truly shines. It blew me away in some parts because it relies mostly on practical effects and not CGI. There are some gruesome kills, the guy that gets cut in half for instance was my favorite. The gore is cranked up high and I’m surprised they were able to show this on cable. If you love gore then you’ll like this because it has some of the best that I’ve seen in a while.
The Banana Splits Movie is weird, really weird but the kind of weird that entertains the hell out of you. I really enjoyed this movie, the acting was good enough to not distract from the movie and the special effects were crazy. The idea for the movie was fun, yeah its basically Five Nights at Freddy’s but who didn’t want to see that in movie form anyway? If you get a chance, check it out it is fun and a competent slasher. I give this a B, it was fun and effective just kind of cheesy at times.
