Sean Parker
Someone will have to tell me why Punch and Judy dolls were ever as popular as they were. Not only are they before my time, they’re pretty much before everyone’s time. Punch originates in 16th-century Italy but became “a staple of the British seaside scene,” according to The Daily Telegraph. Plotlines in the puppet theatre usually revolved around violence, with Punch put into situations he would murder his way out of, comedically speaking. Furnished with a bat sewn to his hand, the puppeteer would strike down kings and queens for political satire. But, eventually, the stage show evolved into a husband and wife act in the 20th century. Punch and Judy became brazenly virulent toward one another in a desperate mockery of the times they found themselves in. Times where Husbands and Wives fought, and domestic violence was typically the joke.
Sporting a Punch mask on the poster for Andy Edwards’ film, a vicious psychopathic murderer is on the loose in the seaside carnival town. He has his bloody bat with him, and the look is understandably menacing. Punch has evolved from the puppet theatre stage and becomes the stalker psycho killer we all knew he would eventually become. If an innocent and imaginative concept like Winnie the Pooh can become a killer, then Punch was a far more obvious public domain option. His look alone stirs up some anxious nerves.
In the movie, Alina Allison plays Frankie, a tough young woman hoping to make this her last seaside offseason. Deciding to skip town and head back to university after returning home to help her mother piece her life back together, Frankie steps out for one final night of debauchery with friends before putting the town in her rearview for good. Of course, some bat-wielding maniac dishing out puns has other plans for Frankie and her friends.
Punch saunters around Frankie, her bestie Holly (Faye Campbell), and Frankie’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Daryl (Macaulay Cooper) as the twenty-somethings consider threesomes at a house party, drop molly, and light a fire on the beach. Havoc, mayhem, and the body count rise in Punch’s wake as he tries to catch up with the group. From here, we get off-color remarks, a Punch special in the more recent years, as this clash of unapologetic boomer ideals faces off against the “woke” youth.
Any movie with a body count is watchable for me, and Punch definitely has more kills than I expected. However, I can’t say it has much in the way of effectual gore. Sure, blood sprays up from whoever’s head Punch is batting in, and in one scene involving innuendo with Punch’s hard, wooden bat, practical makeup effects, and general lighting provide some intense atmosphere. After that specific scene, the atmosphere is generally non-existent, and being that Punch is pretty low budget, don’t expect to see any severed limbs or Evil Dead-level blood-geysers from the kill scenes. All the gruesome stuff happens out of frame.
Generally speaking, there are some sparks of beauty in the cinematography. Whether it’s drone shots of the harbor all lit up or Frankie running through a well-lit tunnel beneath the boardwalk, the composition of some shots in Punch are genuinely striking.
There’s a clear delineation of what writer-director Andy Edwards is trying to achieve, and I have to give him some credit for trying to create a storyline viable to the Punch character. The character is of villainous perception, given the misogynistic and abusive origins imparted on him. IE, the character is as society has made him. But this plotline never reaches the sliver of potential the concept begs of it, either because the studio didn’t want it to become overly offensive or Edwards’ script tried to keep the thematic undertones embedded. Either way, Punch tries to offer an extreme viewpoint of youth progressing society by showing the people who end up stuck and don’t want to change. Stagnant souls desperate to ensure the next generation has it just as bad as they do, including their Punch and Judy living situations. But the message gets muddied through how the film’s finale plays out.
I know we’ve just arrived at this public domain turning point, where twentieth-century IP icons will be free to turn into whatever nightmare a studio thinks it can mold into money. Still, I’m beginning to feel the fatigue already. Last year’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey was a fine, left-of-center curiosity that wound up being a pretty bad time overall. Andrew Scott Bell’s score was really the film’s brightest point for me. That beehive violin is wonderful. But, like Pooh, Punch is rather generic slasher fare. And, seeing the trailer for the upcoming Mickey Mouse Trap, I have to say I don’t have high hopes Mickey’s slasher debut will be very memorable either, based on the striking similarities between it and Punch in style, location, and overall plot. Instead of being the first out of the gate to corrupt these concepts, some patience in the writing process could go a long way to creating a memorable bastardization.
Punch ends up being a watchable film, and it’s a rather quick one at that. But it’s also unsatisfying and offers no originality to the slasher genre. Punch isn’t offensive enough to be edgy, not original enough to be memorable, and it isn’t frightening enough to ensure multiple watches. Plus, the big reveal is about as eye-rolling as can be. If you’re paying attention, you’ll figure the whole thing out in twenty minutes.
Punch is available now on PVOD.
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Andy Edwards’ seaside slasher packs a Punch as the petrifying puppet is brought to life to terrorise the tourists and the town’s local youth in this wickedly wacky new feature that’s been dubbed ‘one of the best slasher flicks to come along since Terrifier’ by GBV Reviews.
