Grimcutty: A Parent’s Nightmare

The Chaudhry family is struggling to find the balance between their internet time and real life.  Amir (Usman Ally) and Leah (Shannyn Sossamon) are worried that their daughter Asha (Sara Wolfkind), who recently quit her extra-curricular activities to become an internet influencer whose podcast is all about serenity and finding Zen, is suffering from depression or anxiety. Their son Kamran (Callan Farris) is extremely smart and a saxophone prodigy.  An internet meme titled “Grimcutty” begins circulating around town causing parents to panic in fear that it somehow causes their kids to harm themselves or others.  Asha begins seeing a live version of Grimcutty, which begins cutting her, but her parents can’t see it and assume she is causing harm to herself.  Can Asha and Kamran find a way to stop the creature and prove to their parents that they did not harm themselves? Watch and find out!

Grimcutty seems to be based on the “Blue Whale Challenge” and even more significantly the “Momo Challenge”, which in 2018 and 2019 caused a global moral panic when it was believed it was causing children to self-harm and commit suicide, none of which was substantiated.  The movie takes the idea of such internet challenges and elaborates on it, creating an actual monster that is invisible to everyone else but its intended victims. The movie also hits on the theme of parental control versus adolescent freedom and exploration.  Parents need to let their children explore and make mistakes without the constant pressure to succeed and without sowing seeds of doubt about the choices they make.

This wasn’t the worse horror film I have ever seen, but it wasn’t the best either and the actors are adequate in their performances.  Shannyn Sossamon does a good job as the worried mother but who is also a bit more understanding than her husband.  Amir, overly worried father, is well portrayed by Usman Ally.  To heighten the ever-growing panic Amir is experiencing, the shots of him are often slightly distorted as if his very anxiety is warping his physical appearance.  Sara Wolfkind was a bit uneven in her performance, for the most part she was good, but there were times she just didn’t seem genuine.  Her podcasts on how to become calm are done in a whisper, as if she believes whispering equates to calm.  The look and feel of the movie was appropriately creepy, and at first glance the design of the Grimcutty creature is horrifying, but the more you see him, the more his presence begins to look a bit too much like a puppet and cartoonish. The story flowed well and was interesting enough without falling too far into cliché.  Although there is a bit of a mystery for the characters to solve in figuring out how to survive, it is too flimsy to bare any real substance and I would have preferred a more elaborate background story on what Grimcutty is and where he came from leading to a better conclusion.

Overall, not a bad entry into the horror genre, but could use some retooling.  The movie was released on Hulu and the reception on the film may indicate that we will not get a sequel, although you never can tell, there have been some pretty bad movies that have gotten an entire franchise.