The lovable nursery rhymes comes to life…in horror fashion with this film that can be best described as Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey meets The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in terms of its tone.

Carla is a radio show host whose specialty is cold cases from years ago. While things kicked off nicely, ratings for the local station for her show have plummeted lately. Her boss Pete tells her she needs to come up with more current events and cases or he will have no choice but to cancel the show. She has one week, and she comes across a very recent missing persons’ case involving a couple who have disappeared into the Woodlands.

Bringing her crew including Ray, Mona, Shelley, Liz, and Matt, Carla and the team head to the Woodlands. With Shelley’s expertise in research, the crew are able to re-trace the steps the couple were believed to have taken. They find a house that at first looks to be empty. However, Carla finds herself meeting Mary, the owner of the house. She explains she lives there with her adult son, one she calls her “little lamb”. However, Carla and the crew soon learn that Mary’s “little lamb” is not who he seems to be and will go to great lengths to protect her.

We’ve seen Grimm tales become horror movies and this year, we were treated to a beloved children’s character getting the horror treatment with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey. That film has its detractors and those who loved the film, including yours truly. Well, the producing duo behind that very film, Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey, team up with director Jared Arber and writer Harry Boxley to bring the nursery rhyme to horrific life. And this one gives a slight edge above Pooh’s first foray into horror.

Leading the cast as the titular Mary is Christine Ann Nyland, who brings a very worthy performance as the mother of the titular “little lamb”. She gives off a Drayton Sawyer-vibe meshed with the mother from Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. She has quite an interesting backstory to how the “lamb” came to be, and his story is similar to that of Leatherface from the 2003 remake of the film in terms of why he wears a lamb mask but what we learn about Mary is even more disturbing. Kudos to Gaston Alexander’s take on the Lamb, who is an unstoppable killer willing to go to any lengths to protect his mother.

As for the cast of potential victims, Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’s May Kelly leads as radio show host Carla, who looks for redemption within herself to keep her job. Her crew are quite an eclectic group, including couple Rob Kirtley’s Matt and Danielle Scott ‘s Liz who try to make the most of their time together when they are alone. Harry Boxley’s Ray is that nervous wreck type while Charlie Esquer’s Shelley is the newbie of the group whose skills in research help along the way.

The kill scenes are sometimes unseeable due to the dark nature of the film. However, the ones we do see are a bit above Blood and Honey as it relies more on very minimal CGI and more on the practical. There is even a possible homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre where Lamb goes after a potential victim with a chainsaw and even the finale, which has a dinner scene of horrors.

Mary Had a Little Lamb is actually really good. It has a pretty good story, a Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibe, and some great performances from Christine Ann Nyland as Mary and Gaston Alexander as the Lamb driving the film with May Kelly showing a great performance as someone looking for redemption. Definitely worth watching, especially for fans of Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.

WFG RATING: A

Uncork’d Entertainment presents a Dark Abyss Productions film. Director: Jared Arber. Producers: Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Jeffrey. Writer: Harry Boxley. Cinematography: Vince Knight. Editing: Oan Hostench.

Cast: Christine Ann Nyland, Gaston Alexander, May Kelly, Harry Boxley, Charlie Esquer. Gillian Broderick, Danielle Scott, Rob Kirtley, Lila Lasso, Elliott Eason, Mark Sears.