Mikey is a 1992 horror film directed by Dennis Dimster and starring Brian Bonsall. The film centers on the character of Mikey Holt, a young boy who is adopted by a family after his previous adoptive family dies. Rather than the darling child they expected, however, Mikey turns out to be a violent psychopath and a budding serial killer.

Plot[link]

The movie opens with a young boy setting fire to newspapers in the basement. His name is Mikey and has a younger sister, Beth, whom he blames for the fire.

When Mikey is disciplined by his foster mother for starting a fire indoors, he responds by causing his foster sister to drown in the pool, electrocuting his foster mother while she is in the bath, and killing his foster father with a bat. Mikey avoids suspicion because he is only nine and tells the police that an intruder killed his foster family. Detective Reynolds is assigned to the case and he does not suspect Mikey.

A psychiatrist recommends that Mikey get fostered as soon as possible. His foster mother's sister is put forward as a prospective person, but she does not want anything to do with Mikey. She states that he was adopted and that it was suspected that he was abused by members of his family. She does not present as somebody who is overly interested in taking care of a young child.

He is then sent to a new family, Neil and Rachel Trenton, who do not know anything about his past. Mikey presents himself as an amiable and loving child. For example, when he first meets his foster parents he asks, 'Are you going to be my new mommy and daddy?' At first, he does not behave as if he is disturbed and he exhibits caring behaviour towards his new mother's fish. He also manifests behaviour which is not out of the ordinary in his desire to succeed in a game the class plays.

Mikey then falls in love with his best friend's older sister Jessie. She, however, but is not interested in him as she is 15 years older than Mikey and dating a man named David. Mikey's teacher is also investigating him because she's noticed something odd about Mikey's behavior. In an attempt to make Jessie love him, he electrocutes David while he's in a jacuzzi. After this fails, Mikey kills his foster father, his foster mother, and his teacher with a slingshot and ball bearings, the school's principal and (nearly) Jessie. To avoid being blamed, Mikey fakes his own death using a skeleton of a boy the same age as him. The skeleton was located in one of Mikey's classrooms at school. Jessie is told by the authorities that Mikey is dead. By the end of the movie, Mikey goes under the name Josh and is adopted by another family.

Cast[link]

• Brian Bonsall as Mikey Holt
• Josie Bissett as Jessie Owens
• Ashley Laurence as Shawn Gilder
• John Diehl as Neil Trenton
• Mimi Craven as Rachel Trenton
• Whitby Hertford as Ben Owens
• Lyman Ward as Mr. Jenkins
• David Rogge as David
• Mark Venturini as Det. Jack Reynolds
• Laura Robinson as Grace Calvin

UK ban[link]

The film was withdrawn from release in the United Kingdom following the James Bulger murder in Liverpool in 1993. The decision was made by the BBFC which refused to issue it with a UK release certificate in 1996. Unlike other banned films that have since been reclassified and released, this film remains prohibited in the UK.^[1]

See also[link]

• "Video nasty"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Mikey at the Internet Movie Database
• BANNED: The most controversial films - Mikey The Independent