PLOT
The opening character didn’t make sense to me at first but after learning she was labeled as “Toby fan girl,” it was clear that she was just such a big fan that she was willing to cut herself to bring Toby back to life. RECORD ME!
Very straightforward and not much room to be confused.
Most of the first half is spent by Jeff killin' and Toby ticking. Just kidding; He's just surviving in the woods and generally having a good time.
Though not very important, the cat parts were cute. Sadly, Jeff kills the cat to remind us he’s psychopathic. Trust me, I know. Rest in peace, Sophie. Luckily, Toby ended up revenging Sophie but died in the process. Rest in Toby.
PACE
A little slow when it comes to getting into the actual fight but the movie's only forty minutes long so it's not too cumbersome. Although, it does take until halfway (twenty two minutes) through the film for Toby and Jeff to actually meet and they don’t actually fight until about four fifths (thirty two minutes) into the movie. Not as bad as The Crow (2024) though.
I think the scene where they showed Jeff's basement took just a little bit too long. Looking back, it was only a minute and a half but the movie makes you feel that time.
HUMOR/DIALOGUE
I don't get the point of "The Riddle Troll" character, but not all the puppets were bad. The others seemed to represent Toby’s mind which was interesting.
The humor can be quite odd but if you're into that, then sure- Go on ahead and check it out.
Sometimes a bit edgy to be edgy but not outright offensive.
I like how they took a second to poke fun at the original Jeff the Killer story, showing that it's not taking itself too seriously. I think if they acted like this was “the greatest film ever” or their magnum opus, then it would be a different experience, being less bearable and cringier.
Toby’s almost endless optimism is nice and kind of funny.
Only two slurs and counting: One from “The Riddle Troll” and one from Jeff.
Honestly, some of the sex jokes were pretty funny, especially when confronted with Toby's dismissive attitude. When it came to the actual battle though, there was honestly more than I expected coming from Jeff that took me out of the action but I wasn’t really into it from the beginning.
VISUALS
The gore's awesome. I mean honestly, the body severance parts were funny and the blood's a bit unrealistic but some of the cuts actually made me weary as someone who's not into that stuff.
The scene where Toby came back was strange and slightly unnerving... Until you just saw his hand pop out of the grave, then it was kind of funnily tame. I will be honest though, I was writing this when the jump scare happened and it kind of scared me.
Sick intro/Opening credits definitely kept my attention.
The camera shots were pretty amateur and there were even parts where it was obvious that the character was the one holding the camera (Mostly Toby) that made it look like a blog sometimes.
The re-creation of Jeff's origin story is pretty funny the way it was portrayed.
Josh's (the person in the red mask) death actually made me laugh out loud. The fake skin and other such gore looked really bad, especially up close.
I don't why, but I thought Toby's "snap" would look better, angle wise and maybe would hit me with a twist, by actually being good.
Sometimes a little too close, sometimes a little too far and sometimes the angle is just downright weird.
AUDIO
Because it was subbed over, the audio awkwardly cuts in and out sometimes. When the audio isn't dubbed, it's almost ear piercing with the sounds of birds and bugs. I now understand why they dubbed it over and muted the "show not tell" parts for the majority of the film.
Sometimes too loud, rarely too quiet. The audio mixing could be better.
The music choices weren't bad.
OVERALL CONSENSUS
Clearly amateur, but I had a fun time watching. This movie was clearly made for people in the Creepypasta fandom, so if you're not or just genuinely looking for a good movie, this probably isn't for you.
It reminded me of another low budget film, Christmas with Cookie, but I enjoyed this one more. Every human is biased and in my bias, I liked this film. It’s not as bad as Santa VS The Devil which is a really low bar, but still something I'd like to say.
I hope Zac Cisco, Tiernan Lachmann, Carolyn Myers, Ella Hamblin, Derek Mason, Tracy Richmond, Liz Wolfe, Tristian Osterberger, Sophie and everyone else working on this had a fun time making this. I plan on watching the film that this was a sequel to, Ticci Toby (2018), at some point in time. I am very glad that they are still making films.
