2.5 out of 5 stars (decent)
Thank you to Uncork’d Entertainment for reaching out to me on this review.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I’d imagine many are planning romantic date nights with their significant others. However, for those of us who don’t really get into the Valentine’s Day spirit, writer/director Scott Jeffrey has provided Cupid, a graphic horror film about the dark side of everyone’s favorite love fairy. Cupid compensates for one-dimensional characters with surprisingly gristly kills and a satisfying finish.
Teen girl Faye (Georgina Jane) nurses a crush on her teacher Mr. Jones (Michael Owusu) and is routinely bullied by mean girl Elise (Sarah T. Cohen). After Elise publicly humiliates Faye, the latter angrily summons Cupid (Bao Tieu), a love-despising demon fabled to kill all in its path on Valentine’s Day. Upon discovering the fable is true, Faye joins with Jones, Elise, her Disposable Bully Friends (Kelly Juvilee, Georgie Banks, and Jake Watkins), longtime friend Matt (Ali Barouti) and another teacher (Abi Casson Thompson) to survive.
Cupid is one of the gristliest films I’ve seen in 2020. The kills are graphic throughout and look thoroughly convincing. The film takes awhile to pick up steam, but it’s well worth the wait to see the characters meet their bloody ends. Faye, Jones, and Matt are sympathetic enough, but the bullies are as one-dimensional as they come. It can’t have been easy to turn Cupid into a monster, but the filmmakers gave him a surprisingly intimidating design while staying true to his traditional look (a toga, wings and a bow and arrow). Cupid is a gory holiday horror with enough strong kills to compensate for its cookie-cutter characters. If you’ve got the stomach, I say See It on DVD and Digital now.
Likely would be Rated R for Strong Gristly Violence