Movie Review: Becky (2020)

Becky is a fantastic horror/thriller with a lot to offer.

This isn’t something we would normally expect to say when watching these. We have watched, and reviewed quite a few horror/thriller films, and they usually tend to be missing something whether it be in the writing, acting, atmosphere, pace, etc. This was definitely not the case here, and we are impressed with how consistent and well-rounded this film is. It was also from “Redbox Entertainment” which is new to us.

The film is about a 13-year-old girl named Becky and her family who are dealing with a loss and spending the weekend together at their isolated house in the woods. Meanwhile, a few convicts have escaped from a prison transport after being locked up for nine years and have found their way into Becky and her family’s lives. Becky decides to take things into her own hands to survive, and things get really messy.

Becky starts off with a really nice scene mirroring the lives of Dominick (Kevin James) and Becky (Lulu Wilson) which surprisingly syncs up very nicely despite the obvious night-and-day difference between their lives. and this was a series of scenes that stood out to us as it was unique and it was a nice segway into meeting the two characters. The overall cinematography was great and had a few moments like this as the film progressed which was refreshing to see.

Written by Nick Morris, Ruckus Skye, and Lane Skye and directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, Becky got pretty much everything right. It hit all of the sweet spots that you would hope for in a horror/thriller. And did it with style. You might be thinking that you have never heard of any of the names mentioned above in the writing and directing roles, and we hadn’t either. That was actually one of the things that stood out the most to us. In their previous experience, they all had just a handful of projects prior to this one, and only a couple of them were feature-length films. It’s nice to see such a well-done production come together like this from relatively new faces. It seems like the team they assembled to make this film was perfect.

Becky is also packed full of some great practical-effect gore. There was a surprising amount of it, but also the perfect amount. In the scenes where it was used, they didn’t go out of their way to make it too unrealistic, while also using just enough to keep it interesting and bloody. The best part about it was the way that it was used. The scenes that had gore or kills were shot very well. And there were some really violent scenes we definitely didn’t expect. It didn’t look cheesy and if there was any CGI at all, it was hidden pretty well. Great work by the special effects team led by Derek Liscoumb who also did special effects for Cube²: Hypercube, and George Romero’s Land of the Dead.

The acting was top-notch as well. The cast really couldn’t have been better. It stars Lulu Wilson as Becky. She has a lot of experience including some notable horror mentions like Ouija: Origin of Evil, Annabelle: Creation, and more recently The Haunting of Hill House from Netflix. Wilson absolutely killed it in this role as a teen who is grieving and pushed to the edge, and then over that edge. Her experience and talent really shined here.

Co-starring alongside her is Kevin James as Dominick who is an escaped Neo-Nazi in this film and the main antagonist. James has been in more productions than we should need to mention, but not one quite like this. Most people know him from the TV series The King of Queens, or things like Paul Blart: Mall Cop. James definitely steps out of that zone for this much, much darker role, and he pulled off an outstanding performance here as the Neo-Nazi antagonist. The other co-stars also have notable performances which included Joel McHale (Community, Ted, The Happytime Murders) and Amanda Brugel (Jason X, Snowpiercer TV Series)

Overall, Becky is an excellent horror/thriller film that did everything right. It offers an excellent cast, a great script that stays consistent, some fantastic and brutal special effects which sometimes result in a splatterfest (best use of a cutting board we have seen in a while), and is just an all-around quality film made by an incredible team. We would absolutely recommend this to any and all horror fans.

Becky releases On Demand and Digital on June 5, 2020. Check out the trailer below, be sure to see this one when it releases soon, and let us know what you think!