A slasher-drenched twist on a beloved children’s story, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” is available to watch from October 3 on Digital and DVD. Directed by the visual effects artist and animator Jason Arber (Meg 2: The Trench). Distributed by Uncork’d Entertainment, this horror film follows the trend of making cute and cuddly fairy tale characters into killing machines. Winnie “The Pooh Blood and Honey”, “Three Blind Mice“, and “The Mean One” are all recent low-budget horror movie fare for the less fussy cinephiles.

Carla, an uninspired radio host (May Kelly), and her crew are at an all-time low. Under threat of losing their jobs they get told their content is stale. The trio begins poking around in local mysteries. Quickly, they stumble across a spate of mysterious disappearances that seem to be exactly what they need to breathe new life into their station. Little do they know, they are about to stumble upon something far more horrifying when they encounter Mary and her Lamb.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Lamb

In the opening act of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” the setup is reminiscent of a particular scene from the Australian horror cult classic “The Loved Ones.” Two heavily beaten and bloody young people sit at a dinner table across from Mary. This low-budget horror movie is less of a dark retelling of the renowned nursery rhyme. The story does navigate away from anything remotely connected to the nursery rhyme lyrics. That is, aside from the inclusion of a lady called Mary and her son, Little Lamb. Little Lamb just happens to be a murderous creature whose only mission is to look after his mother. Can anyone say Texas Chainsaw Massacre Lamb?

What does seem to be the case is that Mary and her monster, Lamb, don’t seem to have a Master Plan. Opportunistic killers with nothing better to do than occasionally torture and kill people. Performances are surprisingly enjoyable. Also on the plus side, the scenes involving Little Lamb getting down to business are effective. Gore and effects are well executed too.

What is a shame is that with the shift into slasher territory, Mary Had a Little Lamb is extremely slow to pick up the pace. And then when it does, there is very little slashing on offer. There is, however, quite a lot of running and quite a lot of hiding. Despite a tight runtime of 77 minutes, the title does feel quite a bit longer than that.

Mary Had a Little Lamb Poem

“And everywhere that Mary went, the Lamb was sure to go.”
Mary Had a Little Lamb, 2nd verse

In the grand scheme of all things cinema, Mary Had a Little Lamb is an entertaining horror movie. They are aiming as high as possible with what they had to work with. The final act peppers a bunch of moralistic tributes within a verbal showdown between Carla and Mary. The resulting consequence is a final chase scene and an ending befitting any popular franchise killer you’ve seen in film before.

Distributors Uncork’d Entertainment picked up the Dark Abyss Production. Directed by Jason Arber and written by Harry Boxley, Mary Had a Little Lamb is on the high end of watchable.

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” is rated

3.5 He’s not the monster, you are out of 5

Mother of Movies score

Mary Had a Little Lamb Horror Movie

Directed by Jason Arber. Mary Had a Little Lamb features an outstanding cast including May Kelly, Danielle Scott, and Christine Ann Nyland. Mary Had a Little Lamb was released on both Digital and DVD formats on October 3, 2023. For more news from Entertainment Weekly on the latest nursery rhymes turned horror movies see this link.