The latest instalment in a growing subgenre of horror films inspired by children’s stories (see also Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, Three Blind Mice, The Mean One), a beloved 19th-century nursery rhyme gets its turn on the murder-go-round in Jason Arber’s Mary Had a Little Lamb.
This surprisingly gritty slasher film follows true crime podcaster Carla (May Kelly) as she investigates a series of disappearances in the middle of rural nowhere. There, she and her crew (including Ray, played by screenwriter Harry Boxley) encounter ageing weirdo Mary (Christine Ann Nyland) and hear tell of the deformed ‘little lamb’ she keeps hidden away upstairs.
Forced to stay the night after a series of calamities, Carla will come to learn the shockingly bleak story behind the nursery rhyme, while her friends and colleagues are led to the business end of the axe, like lambs to the… well, you know.
There are few surprises to be found here beyond the straight face with which Arber and Boxley choose to tell their story. Kelly and Nyland acquit themselves well, even as the story gets sillier and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre cribbing becomes more blatant. The Lamb (Gaston Alexander) looks a little goofy, but those with a thing for grotesque horror Furries should find their appetites mostly sated.
MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB is out now on digital platforms in the US.
