This lightweight, cheap “devil child” entry from 1992 is about angelic looking 9 year old tot Mikey who is the kid version of what the guy from “The Stepfather” movies was. He is a psycho kid on the prowl for the perfect doting family who will love him and only him until he gets bored of them and moves on to some new victims.

The film starts with cute little Mikey offing his current foster family members by drowning, electrocution and a good old fashioned bash in the head! Cherubic looking Mikey blames the ghastly murder on an “intruder” and happily moves on to his next foster home. He strikes lucky with a gushing and filthy rich couple who are both trying to be ideal parents and using books to guide their every decision. Mikey appears quite happy in his new home and school even though his class teacher starts to develop some serious suspicions about him having caught him cheating and also gradually discovering about his past.

Meanwhile Mikey develops a crush on his classmate’s sister and then turns scornful when he discovers that she already has a boyfriend. It doesn’t take long for Mikey to figure out how to go about achieving his goals, even if it means that a few heads must roll along the way.

The film loses out due to some horribly dull direction and the cardboard performances of the cast which in turn are the fault of a very inept script. There is some attempted humour but it comes off almost as dull as the turgid direction. None of the characters are interestingly sketched nor well acted and the film doesn’t manage to surprise the viewer even once. The death sequences are unimaginatively staged and in general, there isn’t an iota of visual flair to be seen from start to end. Also the film doesn’t offer any explanations for Mikey’s psychosis though child abuse is strongly hinted at.

The film is a totally forgettable experience had it not been for the attention it managed to grab when it was being released on the UK in the wake of the dreadful Jaime Bulger killing that had taken place in early 1993. Mikey with its theme of child abuse followed by a psychotic murderous child who watched home videos of his “home made horrors” to amuse himself was rather too close to home in a country that had been reeling in horror at successive real life cases involving children murdering other children as well as a grisly paedophile network preying on young boys frequenting seedy funfairs. The film in fact remains officially banned in the UK as direct fallout of the Bulger murder - An unworthy ban perhaps, but the film still seems to exacerbate old wounds in Britain. Give this a miss and watch The Bad Seed all over again, or even The Omen will do quite nicely!