I don't know what the bloody hell the folks at Warner Bros were thinking when they decided to reboot a long-forgotten variety show as a made-for-TV horror movie with a plot that directly rips off Five Nights at Freddy's. I also have no idea what the bloody hell I was thinking when I decided to watch it. While I wouldn't call it a great movie, I couldn't bring myself to despise it either. It's a perfect blend of So Okay, It's Average and So Bad, It's Good that you'd be likely to see from one of the better movies featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The premise — that the Splits are animatronic puppets that come to life and murder people because their show got cancelled — is absolutely ludicrous, and I think the writers knew that, which is why they don't even pretend to take the concept seriously, and just play it up for all the B-movie camp it's worth. The acting is hit-and-miss; the actors don't have much experience, but I could tell they were trying their best. Characters are developed well enough, but they lacked any semblance of nuance (which, now that I think about it, may have also been deliberate.) Special effects are average, but are noticeably more convincing when the blood starts flowing.
That segues into my favorite aspect of the movie: the death scenes. As someone who grew up watching '80s slasher movies, I can't help but love the scenes where the Splits just go buck-wild and start killing. Sure, they're not up to snuff with Leatherface or Jason or Freddy (Kruger or Fazbear,) but their methods are creative and drawn out just enough to leave an impact (and it helps that most of the characters who die totally had it coming.)
In closing, The Banana Splits Movie is far from an amazing piece of cinema, but it's still guaranteed to put a smile on your face because it knows how ridiculous it is and runs with it.
So Stupid It's Amazing
I don't know what the bloody hell the folks at Warner Bros were thinking when they decided to reboot a long-forgotten variety show as a made-for-TV horror movie with a plot that directly rips off Five Nights at Freddy's. I also have no idea what the bloody hell I was thinking when I decided to watch it. While I wouldn't call it a great movie, I couldn't bring myself to despise it either. It's a perfect blend of So Okay, It's Average and So Bad, It's Good that you'd be likely to see from one of the better movies featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The premise — that the Splits are animatronic puppets that come to life and murder people because their show got cancelled — is absolutely ludicrous, and I think the writers knew that, which is why they don't even pretend to take the concept seriously, and just play it up for all the B-movie camp it's worth. The acting is hit-and-miss; the actors don't have much experience, but I could tell they were trying their best. Characters are developed well enough, but they lacked any semblance of nuance (which, now that I think about it, may have also been deliberate.) Special effects are average, but are noticeably more convincing when the blood starts flowing.
That segues into my favorite aspect of the movie: the death scenes. As someone who grew up watching '80s slasher movies, I can't help but love the scenes where the Splits just go buck-wild and start killing. Sure, they're not up to snuff with Leatherface or Jason or Freddy (Kruger or Fazbear,) but their methods are creative and drawn out just enough to leave an impact (and it helps that most of the characters who die totally had it coming.)
In closing, The Banana Splits Movie is far from an amazing piece of cinema, but it's still guaranteed to put a smile on your face because it knows how ridiculous it is and runs with it.