Benny Loves You

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Karl Holt directs. Karl Holt scores. Karl Holt cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $0.0M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 2Released 7 years ago.
• 3Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
• 4Original score by Karl Holt. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Karl Holt shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Karl Holt and Claire Catwright and George Collie carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "Don't throw him out.".
• 8IMDB entry: tt3917506 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Original score

Karl Holt

Editing

Karl Holt

Runtime

94 min · 1h 34m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$10,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Benny Loves You (2019) ↗

Also by

Karl Holt

• 
  The Pandemic Anthology

  2020 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Negative Image

  2011

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Benny Loves You (2021) Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Benny Loves You (2020) - Official Trailer

  Trailer

Community reviews

What people are saying

• tmdb280390232022-08-28
  ★ 1/10

  Benny Loves You strives for cringe comedy and is 50% successful. Director Karl Holt has the ‘cringe’ part down, but he wouldn’t know comedy if it slapped him across the face – which is what a mother does to her small daughter early in this movie (leaving a handprint on the child’s cheek). Why exactly is this funny? Is it because the woman first asks in an internet forum whether “is it legal to smack my kid”? I mean, if you need to Google this, then you probably shouldn’t have kids in the first place. How about this: The protagonist, called Jack, works for a toy company. He designs a toy and names it in such a way that the resulting acronym is AIDS; hilarity then ensues, except it doesn’t. Pray tell, how would something like this even happen? Can't Jack spell? Does he even know how to read? Is he somehow unaware of what AIDS means? Thus far we have deadbeat parents and illiterate toy designers; a pattern emerges, according to which incompetence is supposed to be funny. If this were so, Benny Loves You would be a riot, considering how incompetently it has been written. Case in point; Jack and a colleague named Richard are vying for a promotion when Jack's parents are killed in a Final Destination-type accident. We then cut to “10 months later.” Jack and Richard are still competing for the same promotion. If neither of you has been promoted in almost a year, maybe it's time the both to give up hope. At some point in all this nonsense, Jack’s childhood plushy Benny comes to life and goes on a killing spree. Why? Who knows? Maybe he’s mad because he has all the elegance of movement of wet toilet paper. If Benny had any sense, he would kill himself instead, because he has nothing going on for him – no personality, no motivation, no rhyme and no reason. He lacks both the charisma of a Brad Dourif-voiced Chucky and the mechanical dexterity of a Puppet Master puppet. There is no ‘how’ or ‘why’ to Benny; just a big, fat ‘what?!’.

  Read full review ↓
• tmdb516161672024-09-02
  ★ 2/10

  "Benny Love You" is a horror film that falls short in delivering the intended scares, with poorly executed character creation and lackluster storytelling. The characters, including the killer doll Benny, appear disjointed and unconvincing, giving the impression of being manipulated like marionettes. The acting, plot, and overall quality of the movie are deemed subpar, with the film failing to engage viewers due to its weak storyline and unimpressive performances. While Benny's appearance stands out as a relatively well-designed aspect of the film, the rest of the characters and their development are criticized for being poorly executed. Ultimately, the movie is deemed terrible, earning only a one-star rating for the slightly better visual design of Benny compared to other horror antagonists. The film's cheesiness and lack of believability contribute to a sense of absurdity, making it a challenging watch that fails to deliver any genuine scares or entertainment value.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• DA

  Darkline Entertainment

Key crew

• SoundJohn Bowe
• CinematographyKarl Holt
• CinematographyMark Lowe
• ProducerKarl Holt
• EditorKarl Holt
• Visual EffectsKarl Holt
• ProducerJohn Bowe
• CinematographyJohn Bowe
• Prosthetic DesignerAlistair Reith

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• stuffed toy

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2019-11-21R
• Digital2019-11-21R
• Physical2019-11-21R

Also known as

International titles

• Benny t'aime très fortFR