The Happytime Murders Review: Down And Dirty Fluff

the happytime murders
STX

The Happytime Murders is written by the guy who played Bing Zinneman (Todd Berger) in Southland Tales, the rollerblading lackey to Cheri Oteri’s Zora Carmichaels, and another guy who has an uncredited cameo as a movie ticket salesman in Donnie Darko (Dee Austin Robertson).

Berger has a bit more experience regarding screenwriting, but both Berger and Robertson are basically unknowns who are vaguely connected through Richard Kelly films.

The writing is worth bringing up because it is mostly god awful. The motive for the killer falls back to basic revenge, but when you start piecing it all together it comes off as illogical and convoluted. The story is fairly generic, but it feels like that’s what they’re purposely going for. All of the creativity in the film begins and ends with the puppets.

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Contributor
Contributor

Film critic located in Houston, TX. Challenged a monkey to a knife fight once. Rode a squeaky tricycle buck naked through a haunted forest twice. Ate unicorn meat to gain immortality, but stepping in cat barf still makes him cringe. He's also a sporadic writer of short stories, draws occasionally, and has a rabid infatuation with the Dragon Ball franchise.