THREE BLIND MICE (2023)

Available On Demand from Uncork’d Entertainment!
Directed by Pierre B.
Written by David Malcolm.
Starring May Kelly, Karl Hughes, Keith Eyles, Lisa Lasso, Lynne O’Sullivan, Helen Fullerton, Samantha Cull, Julia Quaile, Danielle Ronald, Natasha Tosini, Marcus Massey, Arabella-Rose Ann Kemp.

A family decides to hold an intervention for young Abigail (played by May Kelly), who doesn’t think her drug use is a problem. With a counselor in tow, the group decides to go to a secluded cabin in the woods, not knowing that nearby is a broken-down government experiment facility where three of it’s subjects roam freely among the ruins hunting and killing anything them come in contact with. These subjects are human rat hybrids who are also blind and cannibalistic, just like the nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice.

Though the plot takes the concept as literal as it comes and it sets the victims up in the most cliched cabin in the woods location, THREE BLIND MICE takes these concepts and does a solid job squeezing every ounce of potential in it. Many have made light of BLOOD AND HONEY, and the recent trend to adapt nursery rhymes with a horror slant, but honestly, I’ll take this little low fi monsters in the woods flick over a stale INSIDIOUS or EXORCIST sequel any old day.

The plot moves briskly, tossing the family into the path of the three monsters early on, so most of the rest of the film is a chase as the surviving family try to evade the three blind but still dangerous monsters in the woods and the abandoned military facility. Director Pierre B. throws in lots of blood and gore as the rat people tear into their victims like they haven’t eaten in weeks. The environment is taken advantage of pretty well with many set pieces hinging around avoiding the rat monsters by keeping quiet, a la A QUIET PLACE.

The cast is solid as well and seem to be sort of a troupe reused in numerous horror retellings of nursery rhymes from Dark Abyss Productions which also produced MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB, last year’s KILLING TREE, and others like it. May Kelly is really strong as the lead, with her sexy raspy voice, she’s not afraid to get down and dirty with these monsters. She plays a fallible hero who is easy to root for. The rest of the cast fall like bowling pins, but do their part.

THREE BLIND MICE reminded me most of THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake and its sequel, as it plays heavily on government experimentation as the real bad guys here over the monsters who basically are just scrapping to survive. THREE BLIND MICE is the opposite of elevated horror, which I guess can be called escalator where you just sit back and enjoy the right and aren’t really concerned about all of that thinkin’. There’s room for both types in horror and while it’s nothing new, THREE BLIND MICE does a monster in the woods story pretty well.

Check out the trailer here!!