Mikey Reviews

Directed with negligible flair by Dennis Dimster-Denk, MIKEY is the horrifying but implausible story of an angelic looking ten-year-old orphan who is anything but saintly. The film opens with Mikey (Brian Bonsall) drowning his half-sister in the swimming pool and electrocuting his stepmother in the bathtub. When Daddy comes home, Mikey beats him to death with a baseball bat. The police assume an outsider killed Mikey's family, and the murderous tyke is soon adopted by the next set of parental units--Neil (John Diehl) and Rachel (Mimi Craven). After moving into his new home, Mikey befriends the little boy next door, Ben (Whitby Hertford), and develops a crush on Ben's teenage sister Jessie (Josie Bissett). But Mikey is unhappy to learn that Jessie has a boyfriend (David Rogge). Meanwhile, at school, Mikey busies himself by drawing morbid pictures of dismembered people. Mikey's teacher, Miss Gilder (Ashley Laurence), shows one to the school shrink who thinks she's an alarmist. (We later discover that Mikey was abused by his real parents, but this is never discussed at any length.) After Mikey cuts up his own arm, Miss Gilder tries to get Neil and Rachel to take him to a psychologist, but they are not convinced Mikey has a problem. As Mikey's parents are conveniently hesitant, Mikey manages to bump off Jessie's boyfriend and the neighbor's cat. It isn't until Rachel catches the rosy-cheeked maniac watching videotapes of his own misdeeds, that she decides Mikey is disturbed. By the end of the film, Mikey has murdered Rachel, Neil, Miss Gilder and the school shrink. And in the film's most gruesome scene, Mikey props up all the dead bodies in chairs around the dining room table. Mikey then leaves the house and walks along the highway where police pick him up. Once again he isn't checked out by the authorities and is adopted by family number three. Dimster-Denk uses graphic violence to try and cover up holes in MIKEY's plot that you could drive a Mac truck through. How is it that a small child has such strength? Is he Pippi Longstocking's cousin? At least in movies like THE OMEN, we know the child has demonic powers. But in MIKEY, this kid's super strength is never explained. The scene where Mikey has arranged the dead bodies around the table is horrifying, to be sure. But how is it that a ten-year-old has not only dragged these bodies to the table, but propped them up in chairs as well? In fact, not one adult is able to defend himself or herself from this midget-sized Schwarzenegger. (Excessive violence, profanity, sexual situations.)