By Seth Lukas Hynes
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare
Starring Martin Portlock, Megan Placito and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney
MA15+
4/5
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is the third and best film in the Twisted Childhood Universe franchise, which began with the Winnie-The-Pooh: Blood And Honey movies.
Wendy (Megan Placito) must rescue her brother Michael (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) from Peter Pan (Martin Portlock), a serial killer who abducts young boys with the promise of sending them to Neverland.
Portlock is chilling as Peter, Placito is an engaging heroine as Wendy, and DeSouza-Feighoney conveys both terror and perseverance as Michael.
The swiftly-paced narrative features a heavy atmosphere of dread and helplessness, with richly disturbing sound design, some stunning cinematography and excellent gore and practical effects in the gnarly kills.
There is some awkward dialogue and abrupt editing here and there, and the film doesn’t do much to establish Peter’s coughing illness, but overall Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare is a lean, nasty and well-crafted slasher movie.
Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare wears its influences on its sleeve, from It and The Black Phone to The Shining and even the Joker.
While it’s mostly a surface-level spin on a sinister Peter Pan story (and the inclusion of Hook is a bizarre stretch), Kit Green stands out as a tragic addict take on Tinker Bell.
I once called Blood-And-Honey 1 ‘a Halloween movie if Winnie-The-Pooh were Michael Myers’, and Neverland Nightmare executes the above pitch better, and especially in the nerve-shredding climax, than either Blood-And-Honey movie.
A solid indie horror film and a huge filmmaking improvement for the TCU, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare has a very limited cinema release in Victoria, so catch it before it disappears to Neverland.
