Why is mikey banned

People should beware: they are going to see things that will shock them. That said, the movie is interesting, thrilling, scary and intense. A reasonable movie. Funny it isn't. It is about a serious subject, not something to make fun of. I came across this quite recently and was surprised to find that this movie is still banned in the UK, because of the Jamie Bulger case and this movie unfortunately got caught up in all the mist, and I can kinda see why, but it would be nice to see a long awaited belated release of this movie in the UK market as it is a fun little gem.

The movie itself is like I said really fun and moves along at a quick pace, the opening we have the sweet little 9 year old Mikey killing off his current family in quick succession by drowning, hairdryer and baseball bat, talk about fun and then quickly moving on to a new family the Trentons who eventually along with many others meet a similar fate.

Yes this movie is totally absurd and unbelievable, I mean how can a little child overpower an adult and it doesn't seem that they try to hard to fend for themselves and therefore making it way too easy for him to kill them, but there are some scenes which are disturbing like the little girl in the swimming pool was unsettling and the beating with the bat was fun but totally unrealistic and that's pretty much the tone throughout the entire movie, at times it is disturbing and yet at other times I couldn't stop laughing and the marble slingshot murder was also cool.

But one of the failings is that we don't get to find out why Mikey is the way he is and why he freaks out of someone takes his shirt off, none of that gets explained, and some of the dialogue is corny as well, and some of the acting is quite questionable at the best of times. But the standouts are Brian Bonsall gives a hilarious and enjoyable turn as the cold blooded killer child Mikey and a special nod to Ashley Laurence as the teacher, who I also enjoyed in the Hellraiser movies, she really pulls you in and seems to be the only character on the ball, she's not fooled by him at all and makes her investigating scenes a highlight and rather interesting and Josie Bissett was simply stunning as the teenager next door who gets caught up in all the mess, she did okay and the Trentons played by John Diehl and Mimi Craven were likable and ideal as parents, but shame they weren't given much to do.

All in all I found Mikey highly enjoyable with inventive deaths and highly entertaining and not meant to be taken seriously I don't think. This film was actually banned in Britain since it was due for release in the same year as two ten-year-old boys abducted, tortured and murdered a two-year-old child. To this day, I don't understand that decision since nothing Mikey does reaches the scale of what those two sadistic monsters did nor does Mikey ever attempt to harm complete innocents but chooses his victims from people who have done him 'wrong'.

Anyway, I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy and I have to say, I'm quite glad I did. It's definitely not a film to be taken seriously but it can be rather funny if viewed as a dark comedy. Obviously, there's huge plot holes such as how a ten-year-old can move from place-to-place without anyone checking on his background and why these people were able to adopt him in a matter of days. However, there is something slightly humorous in watching the rather stupid adults be played by a young, calculating boy.

This entry into the taboo 'killer kid' horror sub-genre involves 9 year old Mikey. The first scene shows him slaughtering his entire adoptive family yes, really in one fell swoop. Whats more, hes videotaped the whole thing for his later entertainment. Mikey is found hiding in a closet by the police officers investigating who could have done this.

After fobbing them off with a fake description of the perpetrator he is then placed up for adoption. The majority of the film is centred around Mikey's new life with his new family. He starts out by looking every bit the model angelic child but then red flags start to appear. Then the number of 'accidents' and casualties starts to grow. The power of this film is that it was filmed and feels like a TV movie.

It adheres to this genre's conventions but subverts it because of it's controversial subject matter. This juxtaposition works amazingly well especially as the film pulls no punches when it comes to the truly sadistic and brutal deeds of it's central character. The performance of Brian Bonsall is pitch perfect as the psychopathic child. It's also great to see Ashley Laurence from Hellraiser fame make an appearance as Mikey's concerned teacher.

This film was actually made for the 'straight to video' market in the US but was then to be released theatrically in the UK. But then things took an unexpected turn. The abduction of toddler James Bulger by two other children dominated the news in February of the next year and the media was stating how horror films and specifically home videos must be the cause.

A number of films that had been released were targetted with Childs Play 3 taking most of the blame. The Daily Mail who else noted how Mikey was a future release and involved a child killer. Surely this couldn't be released now, could it, they opined.

Head of the BBFC, James Ferman then took the unprecedented step of taking back the 18 certificate that had been granted to Mikey and banning it outright. It's hard to believe that this happened but it did. Mikey was resubmitted for a certificate in but was rejected. The film is still banned in the UK. BUT, it's on YouTube. BadWebDiver 3 September This is actually one of those films that's so bad it's kind of funny. The only character of any intelligence or possible sympathy is the central psycho - in this case a kid.

The adults are so pathetically naive, and blunder into fatal situations so easily, that it's ludicrously funny to watch. My guess is that this film is a cheap attack at 80s liberal politics - the story is so blatantly one-sided.

No one seems to have the remotest chance of catching up to him. He has the uncanny ability to push everyone's buttons exactly the right way. He's so brilliant he can apparently outwit a professional child psychologist without any hassle. He even manages to disarm a gun placed on a table right under the nose of a school principal on the phone. Admittedly some of the coincidences are totally ridiculous, especially the bit with the skeleton that happens to be of a child his age exactly.

If you enjoy the type of story where a psycho killer is running effortless rings around everyone else in the cast, then you may get a wicked thrill from this movie. If you only like sensible stories where the nice ordinary people eventually win and no-one ever really gets hurt, I suggest you avoid this one like the plague. I just watched this movie again after many years. I noticed that the DVD has been long out of print and I don't know why. There are far worse movies that are still in print.

I hope it is re-released with some extra features like cast interviews. It would be interesting hearing from Brian Bonsall about his experience on the making of this kind of movie as well as hearing from the director. It is one of a kind since I don't think there has ever really been a movie made about such a young serial killer other than Chucky which wasn't really the same thing and was a whole different kind of movie.

I think the last scene was the most diabolical and disturbing. I am disappointed that there was never a sequel made especially the way the movie ended and another family adopted him. There was so much of his story that could have been told and many more creative killings would have been good. His birth parents were never revealed and that could have figured into the plot as well. I always thought that the movie "Mikey" and the franchise "the stepfather" were similar and could have been merged.

It would be fitting if the psychotic stepfather Jerry Terry O Quin turned out to be Mikey's long lost birth dad. It got an 18 uncut in late , the certificate was issued to the filmmakers, Mikey was ready to go.

Then the Bulger murder happened, and the Daily Mail noticed Mikey and pointed out its parallels to the case which are only the age of the killer, nothing in the film otherwise echoes any aspect of the crime.

There was a long delay between this and the final, official, rejection of Mikey. The end result is, however, the same: Mikey remains banned. But for the age of its killer, Mikey is a typical slasher. It opens with a traditional pre-credits kill in which Mikey murders his adoptive parents and younger sister, before settling down as Mikey is adopted by the Trentons John Diehl and Mimi Craven.

The film shares its blackly comic deconstruction of the idea of the American nuclear family with The Stepfather , but making the agent of that de con struction a child rather than an adult lends it, in concept, an even more disturbing edge, because of our reluctance to process the idea that a child can do these things.

However, the real star of the film, and the reason it works at all, is Brian Bonsall. Bonsall gives a remarkably credible performance as Mikey slips from his mask of being the dream kid for his adoptive parents into his more disturbing behaviour. It may depart from formula only in the age of its killer, but it executes the generic beats very well.

For a while he appears normal until he develops a crush on his best friend's sister who is way way older than him and would never be interested in him. She is dating a guy called David whom Mikey jealously murders. Again he goes in a killing rampage - executing his foster mother, foster father, teacher and school principal. He changes his identity into Josh and enters the foster system again Okay, so this is clearly not a nice gentle fostering affair like the Australian soap Home and Away.

In Mikey we have a child mass murderer who casually gets away with all of his crimes. Within those rules is a line that says, "Michelangelo is banned. All other characters are permitted". For anyone following the competitive side of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, it's probably no surprise that Mikey is being banned from tournament use. Players have discovered a chain grab using Mikey's air neutral attack that essentially allows players to use the same move over and over again before throwing the opponent off the stage and guaranteeing a KO.

This works on every character in the game.