PLOT: A group of childhood friends accidentally create a Creepypasta internet challenge based on the toy Pooka (think a low-rent Furby). It goes as well as you’d expect. Spoilers, not well.
LOWDOWN: I was a cord-cutter before it was cool. Now, I did it because I moved out at eighteen and needed to be resourceful. I was (as the Tiger King so eloquently put it), “Broke as shit.” Flash-forward sixteen years and the number of streaming services rival the cable packages of yesteryear. Of course, I know we’re not quite there, but you get my point. INTO THE DARK – POOKA LIVES wasn’t on my radar, and with the amount of original streaming content, I was only vaguely aware of the toy/mascot itself. I haven’t subscribed to HULU, but the image of the Pooka has caught my attention online more than once, and with an opportunity to review, I got my ass in gear and gave it a watch.
Malcolm Barrett is our main guy, Derrick. A writer that has had to move back to his home town after an internet backlash cost him his job. Derrick is easy-going but down on his luck, and I felt for him. Having him “canceled” for no reason definitely puts you on his side. He spends the whole film slightly annoyed and fed up, yet he never wallows in self-pity. No, he just drinks more, and I can’t argue with that. Derrick partners with his old friends, and over a few drinks, they create the Pooka entity that haunts the rest of the film. The team aspect works. Molly (Felicia Day) and Matt (Jonah Ray) mesh well as a family unit and have a few marriage-esque jabs that felt natural enough to get me grinning. His ex-girlfriend Susan (Lyndie Greenwood) does well as the straight-laced love interest, and all together, they gel pretty damn well.
The only problem is that this wears thin quick, yet it’s the focal point. The Pooka plays second fiddle in its own film and is replaced with comedic dialogue and fun banter. Every time we get a sense of danger, we’re slapped with a joke. Is it too much to ask for more death? I love the idea of them accidentally creating the online myth, and with some decent direction, this could have been an enjoyable time. POOKA LIVES should have been CANDYMAN meets DEATHGASM, but it skimped on the gore and went all-in with witty banter. It’s a funny film first while the horror comes second. The Pooka itself isn’t very creepy, but it’s unique enough that I was down to see it start dropping bodies. I’m always cautious when horror and comedy are mixed. When done right, we get the likes of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, CABIN IN THE WOODS, and EVIL DEAD II. But the exception is not the rule, and for every EVIL DEAD II, we get a SEED OF CHUCKY. Comedy is subjective, and (in my humble opinion) most people can’t take a joke if their f*cking life depended on it. This is a comedy that likes to dabble in horror. Don’t let the trailer fool you; a joke undercuts every moment of tension. EVERY TIME.
If the plan was to have something fun that also had some horror elements, then I could commit. But the film WANTS to creep you out with its giant ever-changing Furby. Which is it, bro? Am I supposed to be threatened by the life-sized Pooka or enjoy its red-eyed rampage? You can’t have your beer and drink it too. It leans far more into the laugh factory than anything scary, and I really wish it was the other way around. Maybe I’m in the minority and didn’t get the vibe this was going for? Eh, maybe. But for me, the playfulness became too damn tiresome. I’m an old soul that wants the simpler things in life, like a monster/ghost murdering everyone in sight. It didn’t do either genre well enough to pull me through, and I ended up just sort of… there. It’s not terrible. The actors were solid, and there are a few lines that made me smirk, but that’s about it. I’m sure with an editable or two, you may even love it, but unfortunately, it didn’t do much for me.
GORE: There is a bit of blood here and there. We get a cool kill with scissors that gave me hope, but this played it too safe in my opinion.
BOTTOM LINE: INTO THE DARK – POOKA LIVES tried hard, but it just didn’t deliver. Nothing here was horrendous, and overall it was an okay waste of ninety minutes, yet I can’t think of anything the film aced. It’s very middle-of-the-road and nothing that I haven’t seen done better before. The things that do work, like the chemistry of the cast, end up sputtering out in the end. If you have HULU and a bit of free time, there could be worse things to watch. But if you’re more seasoned in horror as I am, you have seen this before, TRUST ME.