Released on Hulu on October 10th, 2022, Grimcutty delves into a teenage girl's fight to stop a monster who appears IRL after going viral as a meme. The movie has a script from John Ross, who also directed the film and has a background in horror. Most recently, Ross directed the TV series The Birch which has a similar storyline of a high schooler interacting with a monster.

The idea of a meme causing mass hysteria in a town among parents who want to protect their kids is a good one. But Grimcutty doesn't produce a scary villain and misses several chances to really dig deep into its subject matter.

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Grimcutty isn't the best Hulu horror movie in October 2022 as the theme of the trouble with the Internet is too heavy-handed. Grimcutty is the subject of a meme who has gone viral and the parents in a small town are all freaking out about his dangerous influence on the kids and teenagers living there. Grimcutty thrives on the fear and hysteria that the parents feel and the more upset they get, the bigger his influence becomes. Asha Chaudhry (Sara Wolfkind)'s parents Amir (Usman Ally) and Leah (Shannyn Sossamon) take her phone away as they don't want her to hurt herself, as they have heard that this monster makes people cut themselves or even take their own lives.

Sara Wolfkind as Asha in Grimcutty

Grimcutty is one of the worst horror movie villains as he doesn't look scary. Shortly after the movie begins, Asha's parents show her his image. While he has an undeniably strange smile, as it looks like he has huge gums and an evil look in his eyes, when he actually appears he pales in comparison to the smartest horror movie villains like Freddy Krueger, the killer doll Chucky, and The Black Phone's The Grabber. Grimcutty is tall with a thin body and seems to move quickly, like many monsters do. But he's not terrifying at all. It makes sense that Asha is afraid of him, especially when he follows her around her house and cuts her arm with a knife. But beyond that, he doesn't measure up to other villains.

There are several missed opportunities in Grimcutty and it's too bad that the movie doesn't delve into them. The first problem is with the theme of how parents worry too much about teenagers using the Internet. While this is definitely true and could make for a smart movie, the story doesn't always make sense. Asha and her younger brother Kamran (Callan Farris) are told to put their phones and laptops in a box so they don't use them and get taken over by Grimcutty. Asha knows that her brother has a secret laptop that he keeps under his bed. It doesn't seem likely that a young kid would have one laptop, let alone two computers.

Grimcutty could be a fun horror comedy if it joked more about how parents are scared of the Internet and how they always think that a threat is lurking there when teenagers really just want to see each other's selfies on social media and post dances on TikTok. Instead, it has a serious and somber tone, which doesn't make it much fun to watch.

It would also be interesting to explore the world of "mommy blogging," but Grimcutty fails here, too. Melinda Jaynes (Alona Tal) has a blog that goes viral when parents learn about her "Detox Boxes." But the movie misses the chance to talk about whether writing about parenting online and trying to give advice actually works. How can one parent really know what's best for others? Isn't it just their own experience that might be the opposite of what someone needs? This would result in some memorable 2020s horror movie quotes, but the character is skimmed over quickly. Parents, especially those who become bloggers or influencers, are always being given unsolicited advice but they also give advice themselves. This is an interesting idea, but Melinda isn't a big part of the movie.

Tate Moore as Cassidy and Sara Wolfkind as Asha in Grimcutty

Grimcutty could be an underrated teen supernatural movie if it focused more on diving into why these characters are so caught up in this viral meme. It seems like the film is trying too hard to say that of course every parent would be scared of Grimcutty and lose faith in their kids. Asha seems to be a great student and good friend who has a YouTube channel where she does ASMR. Why would Asha's parents really believe that she would listen to a monster from a meme? Given what audiences learn of the family dynamic, this doesn't always ring true.

There are some compelling ideas in Grimcutty, but the movie is a surface level examination of parents becoming hysterical and worried about something that they don't understand. It's not very deep or scary but there's a germ of a good idea here.

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