Saturday Morning Mystery (2012) User Reviews

Fun Idea That Loses Its Way

[venusboys3 · 5/10 · 28 July 2013]

As a horror film Saturday Morning Mystery is nothing special. It's not particularly scary or innovative in the 'who, what and how'. The bit that IS innovative is the use of an ersatz version of the gang from Scooby Doo... and that is the film's only real talking point. It lives or dies by how well that is pulled off. Sadly it's a mixed bag of nuts. The first half is great, I enjoyed seeing the real-life version of the characters I watched as a kid... worrying over having no real source of income, having to deal with the police, uncovering criminals whose motives are a bit nastier than 'old man Geezer trying to keep kids away from his gold'. They run into a few quirky characters (what's up with the couple in the diner?) and a haunted house with a bad history. So yeah, the setup is fun. Naturally, I favored the 'Velma' character Nancy. She's brave, perky and smart just like she oughtta be.

To my mind the movie took a turn for the worse when the obligatory 'Shaggy'-induced drug sequence goes down. It took me a moment to realize what was going on and somehow it just didn't sit well. It felt forced... or something. After that, and the equally obligatory 'Fred' and 'Daphne' sex scene it felt like the writers had shot their wad.

The trick of the movie is that it tries to go where Scooby Doo never went... where, as a kid, I always wanted it to go, by giving the kids some REAL monsters to uncover. Unfortunately this is where it pretty much completely drops the Scooby Doo setup and goes straight into 'coeds meet rabid hillbilly' territory. There are no surprises or interesting moments from this point on that haven't been seen in dozens of other fright flicks. I have a larger issue with horror films in general that throw up their hands when it's time to get scary and resort to just chopping up the cast rather than coming up with more creative ways to say 'BOO!'. Death and dismemberment are nasty but a lot can be said for more subtle character-based scares as well. The monsters in Saturday Morning Mystery just are not worthy of their adversaries. For one thing they bear no resemblance to the ersatz spooks the cartoon gang had to thwart... which is fine, but they're not a particularly interesting pack of ghouls in any other way either. They're just there to sneak around in the background and then leap out and kill. Not surprisingly the kids on their own are much more fun to watch.

There is a confused attempt to do the signature 'hallway chase scene' that was often in the old cartoons... but if it was meant to be funny it wasn't.

Really, if it weren't for the first 45 minutes or so of this movie it wouldn't even be worth a discussion because it would be just another slasher flick.

Misleading marketing for a crappy film.

[Kolobos51 · 3/10 · 20 July 2013]

I want to make some things clear to anyone considering watching this movie. Saturday Morning Mystery is not a parody, it's not very funny and generally isn't trying to be, and it has next to nothing to do with Scooby Doo.

This is just another low budget horror flick, very low budget, about a Ghost Hunters style scenario going bad when a crew of paranormal debunkers loaded down with video equipment stumble across an actual scary situation. This is a great premise that no one can seem to get right (the original Grave Encounters came closest) and Saturday Morning Mystery is certainly no exception.

Our crew of cash strapped debunkers are sent to a notorious house reputedly once owned by Satanist and now allegedly haunted by... something.

The dysfunctional group includes a druggie, an uptight rich guy, a smart girl that acts as leader, and her best friend. Oh, and a dog, which has nothing to do with the plot and never does anything significant (Scooby Doo he ain't). That dog, along with references in the beginning to criminals using ghost stories to hide their crimes, are the only references to Scooby Doo and there is almost no outright comedy, intentional or unintentional.

The first hour is plodding and dull and the movie stays alive, just barely, by the strength of the cast, which is above average for this type of movie. They're not playing well written characters though and the script seems so choppy and poorly structured that the film never flows well.

All hell breaks loose in the last 30 minutes but I wouldn't really say that it qualifies as a slow burn because the finale is so incongruous with the rest of the movie that it really feels like part of a different film.

An out of nowhere sex scene in the middle of the movie and a hilarious car fire filmed by people that clearly didn't have the money or resources to actually light a car on fire are pretty much the only memorable things about this POS. Just skip it.

Bit of Fun

[Devoted-to-Disney-Downunder · 5/10 · 21 February 2021]

Low budget B rated movie. Watch it for fun not for awards. It is what it is!

Pretty bad

[TdSmth5 · 3/10 · 30 September 2013]

A group of 4 paranormal investigators and a dog are hired to find out what is haunting a giant mansion. The timing is perfect because they are pretty much broke. Previously they caught some child endangerment ring, which was actually a police sting operation. On the trip to the mansion, they meet a friendly cop.

Once inside each of the 4 starts investigating the place on their own. Two of them drink water with LSD in it, because one of them, the dope head hid his LSD in a water container when the cop arrived. They start seeing things and go crazy. Now all of them are screaming at each other. When they find a car with a corpse in the trunk they finally see a child running around. Now they all go after it and some of them are killed.

Now we learn who is haunting the mansion and why and things at last get bloody. The cop also shows up and confronts the villains.

Saturday Morning Mystery features an ugly (with the exception of Josephine Decker) and uncharismatic cast acting like jerks most of the time. The lead is rather annoying and whiny. Of course the "mystery" doesn't happen in the morning but at night, so we get these morons running around rooms with flashlights chasing or being chased by shadows. The story is mildly interesting but as often happens with movies, they wait until the very end to start explaining things and cram most of the story in the last minutes.

If the movie by itself weren't dull enough, we have some marketing genius who thought that deceiving customers would be the way to go and they marketed this as a comedy. This movie is not fun, nor funny, not even all that entertaining. There was material for an alright horror thriller, but they needed a different cast, someone to enhance the script. The director does what he can but without material or a strong cast there's only so much he can do.

Scooby-poo

[goryverbinski · 1/10 · 16 September 2013]

The single greatest missed opportunity in the history of man. What should have been a groovy five star romp, turned out to be nothing more than a half-baked wannabe Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Saturday Morning Mystery is brainless, practically bloodless, and without a sense of humor...or horror for that matter. The film, if you can even call it that, is sure to disappoint every fan of every genre as it brings literally nothing to the table. Turning Scooby Doo into a horror film is the single most brilliant idea I never had. This is why I am so angry at the filmmakers responsible for this blunder, because it deserved better. I could have wiped my butt with film stock and produced a better final product than this trash.

Takes awhile to get going

[thedarkestshadow-32785 · 1/10 · 21 July 2020]

The dog dies. That's enough for me to give it 1 star.

Good Idea....

[patsulli99 · 5/10 · 15 August 2022]

It's obvious what they were going for. A rated R, edgy horror Scooby Doo.

They basically just take everything (minus the dog) and ramp it up to 11 and that should be a blast and to be fair there are times where it is. The cheesey montages, the team coming together, the over the top cliches and some of the horror isn't even half bad.

But it's slow. It plods along, makes it painfully clear it's on a low budget and while the acting isn't bad, why'd they do that to Fred? Honestly it just isn't exciting. A great idea and one I hope gets another try in the future. This just didn't stick the landing.

Scooby Doo meets The Evil Dead? Not even close.

[bernardlcrawford · 3/10 · 7 May 2020]

Other reviewers claimed that a missed opportunity to create a real life Scooby-Doo movie was missed. No it was not. There were already two made and that is more then enough. One reviewers contends it is not a copy of Scooby-Doo, Yes it is. For all intents and purposes, it is. The ONLY reason I would suspect The Evil Dead is mentioned is due to the amount of blood? Of course the blurb on the cover is a no name site and unknown person so why believe what is claimed? One could make a much better comparison. Yeah, they have a dog, so what?

The objective breakdown:

Cinematography: Less then average. Much of the film is shot in darkness. Camera seemed to have a great deal of difficulty in focusing. You will see many a shot not in focus. Shots are not properly framed. This occurs so frequently it is disturbing.

Sound: Average. Sound is clear and no difficulty discerning dialogue.

Music: Background music does not seem to fit the movie and is repetitious, loud and ingratiating after viewing for a period of time

Acting: Some are average. The actor playing the "Shaggy" character is horrid. The cop is not much better. It is amazing how much work some of these actors have in low, low budget er... movies, should I call them that?

Script: Predictable. This is suppose to be a parody. It is extremely obvious that the two writers attempted quite a bit of humor in the dialogue. The problem is, none of it is funny at all. The inability to write humor and the actors inability to deliver the lines properly is as painful as performing botched eye surgery upon one's self with a spatula. It fail completely what it sets out to do.

If one has absolutely nothing else to watch I guess one could watch this. There are SO many bad movies made it is like being hit by a tsunami. Regurgitation of the same film over and over makes me want to regurgitate.

Not for Everyone - BUT...

[drdespicable-204-832102 · 7/10 · 29 October 2019]

Imagine Jack Ketchum - who gave us the girl next door, offspring, the woman, and a number of other terrifying novels and stories that haven't yet made it to the big screen - wrote an episode of SCOOBY-DOO, where are you?. That's what we have here - as with "old-school" SCOOBY, any ghosts are metaphorical, and ordinary humans are behind it all. Except these individuals are nothing like ordinary, and a bit short of human!

There's comedy, here, but it's dark, a little bitter, and largely hangs on the translation of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby into Chad, Gwen, Nancy, Floyd and Hamlet. But if you're looking for guffaws and knee-slappers, you've come to the wrong movie. The makers are playing it all straight and for adults, so this isn't exactly a movie you can sit down and watch with your small children.

It's fun and stands on its own as a horror film, even without the SD references. If you and your friends have never seen the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, you should be able to enjoy this on its own merits. The people complaining are just mad because they didn't get the movie they wanted - and that might be at the fault of the marketing department, because they did kind of set up to sell people a Scooby-Doo movie, but there are very few of the cartoons tropes at work.

Anyhow, if you can put Scooby and the gang out of your head, and you're a horror fan, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to enjoy this for what it is - part homage, part gritty, visceral horror!

Everything slipped out of hands. Horrible.

[PentagonDark · 3/10 · 25 October 2013]

Just don't go for it. Please... If you loved Scooby-Doo and that type of fun, please avoid this. Otherwise you will hate original. I really don't know what the team meant by this movie. Was it horror? Comedy? Or a horror comedy combination? You really kidding me. Everything slipped out of the hands from the movie team. They were not sure what they were doing. Just some shots with so called fun and horror. In no place of the movie, it can entertain you. Such a waste of time. i can't give you even a single reason to watch this movie. Even the stars and the dog must give some entertainment. But none. This one in o means is good for entertainment.

My Review Of "Saturday Morning Mystery"

[ASouthernHorrorFan · 9/10 · 24 July 2013]

"Saturday Morning Mystery" (formerly known as Saturday Morning Massacre- and Massacre is still the film's true form.) is a bizarre little indie flick directed by Spencer Parsons. The film stars Ashley Rae Spillers, Johnny Mars, Josephine Decker, Adam Tate and Paul Gordon. The story follows a crack pot team of paranormal investigators, much like the Scooby gang, who get hired to dispel the rumors and fears of locals around the paranormal activity at an estate. The group soon learn that there are much more sinister things hidden behind the walls of the Kyser schoolhouse. The gang choose to stay and solve the creepy behind the going-ons at the property, which proves to be in grave error. The decision to solve this mystery becomes a real massacre.

"Saturday Morning Mystery", (or Massacre) as I prefer to consider the film, is truly one of those strange films that blows you away. I had expected some cheesy, retro-throttled, low-budget spectacle. At the start there is a real throwback feel to the film which clearly became inspired by the cartoon mystery gang- only with the characters and their back-story though. Beyond that the similarities become terrifyingly obsolete. This is a real fright-fest fanfare story, with a way more sinister series of events than any cartoon show could think of inspiring. It becomes a truly gripping and nail-biting grindhouse horror story. The kitschy beginning and groovy build-up in this film has a cleverly darker intent. That intent is to throw you off guard, and then drag you into the pits of hellish nightmares as your nails tear off, and blood stained cries shatter the dark chilling air! This film is one of those rides into horror land that you will be glad you took. Think –The Scooby gangs accidentally wonder into the path of Stag Night kinfolk in a rural setting.

The story in this film is pretty well written and flows beautifully. There are a couple of moments that go off between dialog and scene portrayal. Actually only two that I remember seeming off was the "tab of acid" line and the "I totally have a jimmy in this bag" (or something like that.) There was no tabs taken-the drug leeched into the water cooler, and the character that said the line about the jimmy didn't have a bag on her in the scene. At least I didn't see one. Anyway those two moments – that is all-those two were the only milliseconds that slowed my totally pleasurable horror ride into this window to Hell. Pretty much every aspect of the film from cinematography to directed to soundtrack and kill scenes rocked in "Saturday Morning Mystery" You don't expect the intense vicious turn this film takes toward the last act but man it drags you in and sets you on the edge of the slaughtering blade of horror. This is truly one of the best indie horror films I have seen and a must for horror movie collectors.

Much better than I anticipated

[Mike_T-Little_Mtn_Sound_Archive · 7/10 · 29 January 2020]

This will be short and sweet.

I ENJOYED THIS MUCH MORE THAN I EXPECTED!

Yes...it will remind you of Scooby-Doo. It's supposed to.

Yes...you have to take some things on "faith," which means there are some implausibilities & some factually illogical scenes. What horror movie doesn't have them?

Folks that watch horror movies and then nitpick them to death by saying "why go in there alone?" or "there's no way that could happen" miss the point in my opinion.

I actually really liked how this built steadily through the movie. The director did a good job of using subtleties to build the suspense and form the horror elements without using generic jump scares. Sounds, curiously angles cinematography, mirrors, lighting...they were all used to the director's advantage.

*** A HINT: Pay attention to the entire screen you're watching, throughout the movie. Just sayin.

The acting was pretty decent, I dug the story, the script was acceptable, the direction was good, the scenery was really good (they filmed it in an actual historic mansion), and the production was good.

Contrary to what a few reviews have said, I did not find this gory at all. If you're looking for gore, go elsewhere. There is a bit of blood, and a couple scenes that border on gory, but it's not a gorefest.

Overall, I liked the whole "Scooby-Doo" tie-in. Make no mistake...it's not a copy or a new incarnation, only the set-up and purposeful character tropes that tie them together intentionally. Really enjoyed it. Won't win any awards, but the $3.99 rental price on Amazon was worth it to me.

For fans of slasher movies.

Misleading cover art, where's the comedy??

[Jester222 · 4/10 · 19 March 2019]

Firstly I'd like to say that I really hate it when the posters and covevart to a film is misleading it in some cases features characters that aren't fen in the film ........like the chainsaw!?? Supposedly this is a comedy horror? But I can't remember anything remotely funny. Shame as the idea of a gory parody of Scooby Doo is a good one but was totally wasted on this very lazy script.

The acting isn't too bad but it just plods along at snail pace with usual cliches and the fun only really starts in the last 25mins, from then it's ok. Some ok gore and hint of tension. Ultimately it's a huge wasted opportunity due to the poor writing. Only watch if not much else on.

Totally the poor man's Texas Chainsaw Massacre

[selfdestructo · 1/10 · 1 February 2023]

They even put a chainsaw on the cover, which, Fun Fact, doesn't even appear in the movie! My guess, from the packaging, to the title, to the synopsis, to the ridiculous quotes by Mark L. Miller, the company that put this out had no idea how to market this turd. They have a van and a dog. Yeah, it's just like Scooby Doo!

SPOILER: This film is about four paranormal investigators. Absolutely NOTHING paranormal happens. Oh, there's plenty of aimless wandering around. I want to know: Where is their equipment to investigate this mansion? I've seen enough of these shows to know there's all kinds of stock-in-trade gear they use. They set up a couple cameras, and one guy has a microphone. The lead investigator literally carries around a lamp.

The acting is sub par all around. And man oh man, no one takes the cake like the local sheriff who shows up to give them a tour of the house, and monotonally spouts off like 10 minutes of exposition. PURE MAGNETISM! Then, one of the girls goes outside to flirt with him, and get his number! I'm like, wait, what? What did I miss?

One thing I learned from Saturday Morning Mystery: This director cannot shoot or stage a proper action scene. I mean, it's a real cluster-F.

The only good things in this movie are when one of the girls takes her clothes off, then later, gets covered in blood. Literally the only (admittedly perverse) form of entertainment to be found in its 88-minute running time. It is that bad.

Better than its rating here

[blumdeluxe · 6/10 · 15 March 2020]

"Saturday Morning Massacre" tells the story of a group of ghosthunters that mostly seek to hunt down criminals but find themselves in a house where dead is around the corner.

At first, the plot seems well-known. A group of ghosthunters hunted down by some actual real demon or something alike. However, I really like the beginning of this film because they kind of play with this stereotype. For a moment afterwards, I had the fear that it would drift off to some paranormal happenings but in the end I have to say that they (vaguely) stayed within the real world. In many ways this film is over the top, in other ways it can be also a bit slow and probably disappointing for fans of the genere. But as someone who is really tired of demons and paranormal splatter horror, this was actually a nice relief.

All in all you can see that some creativity and talent were put into the movie even though there are surely things to criticize rightfully.

Loved It!

[grant-williams212 · 9/10 · 23 November 2012]

I loved this film!

From the character play to the location filmed, everything kept me on the edge of my seat--wondering what would happen next. Suspenseful, thrilling and fresh-fully spooky; this is one folk tale I could watch again.

This film throws viewer prediction out the window and keeps you guessing in this twisted Texas town where things go unnoticed until a gang of pesky kids arrives. You won't believe your eyes or your senses when you try to take in all that is going on.

It's good to see young artists develop some Americana heritage into a visually stunning and mind bending work of moving art!

Kudos and two thumbs up for Saturday Morning Massacre!

Out Scooby-Doos the Scooby-Doo movies

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 21 March 2014]

Hired to investigate a supposedly-haunted abandoned schoolhouse, a group of paranormal investigators find the school is far more dangerous than they bargained for and must try to find the cause of the paranormal incidents to get out alive.

This turned out to be quite the effective and entertaining parody effort while falling slightly short as a true stand-alone effort. Aping the TV show to it's fullest extent, right down to the set-up of the group and their relationships to each other, the continual use of finding bad guys in masks as the prime culprit and the same goofy humor throughout, even managing to bring a dog into the fray as a partner makes this one feel like a true homage yet it still manages to go in it's own separate path as the group manages to find an actual case of demons and satanic madness in their latest assignment, which proves far too much for them to handle and causing the middle section to be enormously entertaining with a series of sequences really amping up the terror and tension throughout. The sight of seeing them succumb to the actual torments and tortures inflicted upon them by the ghastly, creepy-looking demons and ghouls makes for some additional fun than expected due to the playing off the homage angle earlier and seeing the walls drip with blood-splatter, the group finally engaging in sleazier antics than usual and the entire actuality of the demonic origins of their protagonists is just endless fun due to incorporating this into the film. That said, without all that knowledge beforehand this does tend to follow the motions in just about every one of these haunted house investigation movies with the team not completely sold on the enterprise being what they think it is, they eventually get proved wrong when it turns out to be for real and must overcome the experience for the first time. It does grow a little thin to see it resorting to these clichés to keep going, but that's the way it goes here with this type of plot. It also really easily betrays it's low-budget roots quite often with a series of lame shots of the demons or really weak-looking special effects, but the rest of the movie is so fun it really overcomes that.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, drug use and violence-against-animals.

The Greatest Scooby Doo Movie Ever Made

[yaktheripper · 9/10 · 31 July 2013]

So yeah, Hollywood has made a mess out of Scooby Doo. Honestly...and I'm just keeping it 100, the damned Scooby Doo cartoon wasn't that great to begin with.

Let's get it out of the way first; yes, this is a Scooby Doo homage/parody. The names have been changed and the archetypes updated but the influence is 100% Scooby Doo. Ironically, the Scooby character, the dog ( I can't recall it's name) is almost an after thought in the movie...and I'm pretty sure this was done intentionally. The focus is what and how would the Mystery Team from Scooby Doo actually act if the cartoon was a reality. In other words, why would they see the bizarre things they see, why would they come to some of their outlandish conclusions, why and how would the old gag involving everyone chasing the fiend through multiple doors work??? Clever stuff. The cast is eccentric and marvelous. They flesh themselves out through character acting and very little to no back story. The cinematography is ideal for the slasher movie breathing down the necks of our characters and slyly sets up tension and creates a slow burning doom that may or may not be awaiting our protagonists. The score is very well done but the sound effects are some of the best I've heard in some time. If you do check this great little flick out, listen for those sound effects...they're remarkable. There are a few small problems however... It might be a bit too long as some have suggested, but my theory is the movie kicks gears towards the end and it sort of guts any emotional investment we might have been brewing. It goes from a sort of edgy comedy to a survival/slasher movie much like "Behind the Mask : The Rise of Leslie Vernon" and I felt the same way as a viewer of that great little movie as I did with this one. Very interesting collection of talent involved with this one...I'll be following what they do in the future.

Superb Horror Satire

[dianerpessler-46164 · 10/10 · 26 August 2015]

Brilliant satire of horror films and a stunning horror movie in its own right. The atmosphere is incredibly thick with terror as a ghost hunter group investigates whether an abandoned mansion is indeed haunted. The writing is sharp and funny but there are still plenty of startling moment and sequences of pure fright. At times things get pretty intense but the film never loses its sense of humor nor its way. The cast is wonderful with Ashley Rae Spillers (Last Vegas; The Love Inside Me) giving a delightful performance as the leader of the group. Spillers is a young talent surely destined for big things in the near future. Anyone who enjoys scary movies with clever plot twists and funny moments will certainly love Saturday Morning Mystery.

Horror Film and Black Comedy Strikes Gold

[jlthornb51 · 10/10 · 23 May 2015]

A small budget and restrictive shooting schedule did not prevent director Spencer Parsons from producing one of the classic dark comedy horror films. The humor is never heavy handed and always clever, allowing for a true tale of terror to coexist with the satire. The spoofery works beautifully but that does not mean there aren't moments of intense fear and unrelenting ghastliness. There is indeed graphic slaughter and violence as a group of young people fight for their very lives. As an audience we feel their unholy fear yet chuckle at some very sophisticated satire. Ashley Rae Spillers is particularly good and has an innocent quality that only accentuates a smoldering sexuality that's mesmerizing. She is magnetic and her scenes light up the screen. The entire cast is nothing less than superb and never lets on that they might be in on some of the bloody jokes. Overall, one of the most significant horror satires in the last ten years, masterfully made, and inspiringly realized.