Benny Loves You offers some killer cuddles from disembowel-me-Elmo

Benny Loves You opens with an almost literal slap to the face as the main feature is preceded by a short which covers the same ideas but with a very different spin on them. It’s a little bit jarring, though, when you figure out that what you’ve just seen isn’t even remotely connected to the film that follows. It’s basically the puppet horror comedy equivalent of the pre-credits sequence of For Your Eyes Only.

Jack (Karl Holt) could be the poster manchild for arrested development. 36 going on 40 and still living with his parents. But when his parents die in a freak accident, Jack is left to pick up the pieces of his life and finally grow up.

Something of a passion project for its writer/ director/ star Karl Holt, Benny Loves You is a gleefully silly, ridiculously gory and smartly economical piece of filmmaking. Making the most of its microbudget, it’s occasionally uneven but when it hits its stride, it really hits the heights of the haunted toy genre.

It starts a little slowly, though, spending a little too much time on exploring the self-concious and slightly contrived weirdness which surrounds and defines Jack, much of which doesn’t really serve to move the story along but once Benny actually makes his appearance, the film picks up measurably and doesn’t really look back.

While the performances are decent for this kind of filmmaking, without meaning to be cruel, Benny easily delivers the film’s best performance. It’s a masterwork of puppetry which infuses the malevolent muppet with so much personality and life without changing his lovable, wide-eyed expression. The movie is brimming with ideas which constantly strain against the limitations of the budget but there’s no doubting the creativity and enthusiasm with which this is story has been brought to the screen.

Awash with the surreal black humour of the likes of Inside Number 9 and an irrepressible, effervescent energy which carries it over some of the more disjointed moments, Benny Loves You is a fresh, funny and frantic indie movie and no doubt destined for cult status.