Becky

Becky (2020)
Directed by: Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott
Written by: Lane Skye, Nick Morris, Ruckus Skye
Starring: Amanda Brugel, Becky, Cary Murnion, James McDougal, Joel McHale, Jonathan Milott, Kevin James, Lulu Wilson, Robert Maillet, Ryan McDonald

A troubled young girl, struggling with the death of her mother and her father’s new romance, gets the anger therapy she needs when a gang of escaped convicts knock on the door, in this gory, taut thriller…..

Now and again you just need to turn off those brain cells and basically just enjoy what is in front of you. Take Becky for instance, there is no character depth, no explanation into how a young thirteen year old girl can somehow become a teenage Rambo and take a full force of a punch to the chest and then inflict gruesome revenge on grown men, but when we are having so much fun, do we really care for the small details?

What you see is what you get with this delightful film from the Cooties duo Jonathan Millot and Cary Murnion in what is nothing more than a lean mean action film that seriously dips its toes into the slasher genre.

The plotline is as basic as you can imagine with a bunch of convicts led by Kevin James (yes that one!) escaping from prison and ending up at the door of Jeff ‘s (Joel McHale) lake house.

On that particular weekend, Jeff is trying to get a new family dynamic going with his daughter Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson) and his new girlfriend Kayla (Amanda Brugel) and her young son.

In the brief backstory we do get, we see that Becky is a troubled young girl who is badly suffering from the death of her mother and takes out all her anger on her father who just want’s to move on and create a new life for them both.

Having told her the good news that they are not selling their family lakeside home, she is then hit with the arrival of his new found love to share their weekend away, setting off her grief that results in bouts of anger.

One more angry tantum later, Becky storms off to her playhouse in the woods just at the same time as Dominick (James) and his bunch of merry crooks, Cole (Ryan McDonald), Hammond (James McDougall) and Apex (pro wrestler Robert Maillet) come knocking.

What follows is a violent hybrid of Home Alone. Die Hard, with the added violence of Rambo in which buckets of bloods is splashed onto the screen that will delight many gore-hounds who will no doubt be stunned at how violent this film gets.

Missed a great eye ball scene like the one in Hostel? Want to see death by a motor boat propeller? Then jump on it and the fact that its a revenge dished out by a young vengeful child, makes it all the more better.

While the reason the crooks knock on that particular door is a typical plot MacGuffin, its the sheer brutality and some pretty decent shocking plot developments that will easily keep you enthralled and engaged.

There are slight grumbles when it comes to the narrative of the plot, but lets be honest, if you are looking for an enjoyable blood drenched caper, led by yet another impressive turn from Wilson herself, then Becky ticks all the right boxes and while some will bemoan the ludicrous situations on show at times, watching a thirteen year old go full on John Rambo, is one of 2020’s most delicious outings.

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