Macabre…ish Horror Review: Mikey
Mikey, 1992/ 1 hr 32 min.
Mikey (Brian Bonsall) is a troubled child in an adopted family. He starts a fire in the basement and blames his adopted sister, Beth, who is also present but he’s punished anyway. And Mikey holds a wicked grudge because the next day, not only does he torment and drown Beth in the pool, he goes after his adopted mother while she’s in the bathtub. After over hearing her regret about adopting him, he tosses a hair dryer into the tub.
He then preps for his dad to get home by scattering steel balls on the floor, when he trips on them and falls through a glass door, after seeing Beth, floating in the pool. Mikey finished him off with a baseball bat to the head. And Mikey records it with a camcorder.
When detectives arrive to the scene, Mikey has a description of the ‘person who killed his family’ but one of the detectives (Mark Venturini)isn’t so sure. And the theatrics continue with the child psychiatrist. So it is suggested that he’s immediately placed with a family.
They try his adopted mother’s sister first, who refuses to take him. So he is placed with another couple, The Trentons, Neil (John Diehl) and Rachel (Mimi Craven) and as soon as they arrive home, Mikey meets the neighbors. They do all the family stuff, visits the zoo, goes to scouts etc.
He later walks home from school with the neighbor kid, Ben (Whit Hertford), they cut through a cemetery and Mikey quickly freaks him out.
At school, he struggles with cheating and he draws gory pictures, plays disturbing games by himself and he is overly fascinated with death and how people died. His teacher is the only one that is concerned.
Later, Mikey gets a crush on Ben’s older sister, Jessie (Josie Bissett) and tricks her into kissing him by playing dead. Aside from being 10 years older than him, she also has a boyfriend. But that doesn’t stop Mikey from sneaking into her bedroom window in the middle of the night and watching her sleep.
Meanwhile, his teacher, Miss Gilder (Ashley Laurence), seizes on an opportunity to find out about Mikey’s past when he slips up and tells where he once won a spelling bee. She finds out his old last name and what happened to that family.
Later, after snooping on Jessie and recording her, he sees her with David (David Rogge) and throws a rock through the window. After killing the mood, Mikey kills Jessie’s family cat, Rosie and then puts her behind David’s truck tire.
In school the next morning, Mikey starts stabbing his arm with a thumb tack and finally the Trentons are called in for a meeting with Miss Gilder and the Principal, Mr. Jenkins (Lyman Ward) and they are not taking the news well at all.
And Mikey has a total melt down when he gets home from school and finds all the baby fish, gone, that he was taking care of and considered his friends. He is unlike his normal perfect self that they are used too and are finally concerned.
Mikey brings flowers to apologize and once again, finds his mother in the bath tub and contemplates a curling iron that’s sitting on the counter, but he resists the urge.
When Jessie takes David back he is begins to plot. He lures Jessie in the house with a phone call and kicks the radio in the jacuzzi that David is soaking in, electrocuting him.
Meanwhile, Miss Gilder has found the article about his former family and she contacts the detective on that case. She becomes very concerned when she finds out about David’s electrocution.
Everyone is upset about David’s death but Mikey and people are starting to see Mikey for what he is. The Trenton’s keep resisting the warnings and it’s putting them in danger. Rachel catches him casually watching his video of David’s death and Mikey attacks her with a hammer and kills her when they go over the bannister with a shard of glass.
Miss Gilder and Mr. Jenkins show up at the house but they are to late. And after wrongly, assuming Mikey was also dead, they are now in danger themselves. All that’s left is for Mikey to lie in wait for Neil, who is finally on his way home. But while he’s waiting, he’s going to see Jessie.
After tonight, he’ll be on to the next family.