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| images courtesy of Toy Robot |
There’s a lot to be said of a movie that successfully subverts your expectations without resorting to simple “gotcha” moments or insulting the audience’s intelligence. Combinations of the two are the worst of all (looking at you, Last Jedi and Halloween: Resurrection). I wasn’t thinking about that before I began watching Daniel DelPurgatorio’s 2025 film, Marshmallow, but I sure was afterward. This is a movie that starts as one kind of film, tricks you into thinking you’re watching another, and then blindsides you with a twist so shocking, so original, and so incredibly well-devised, M. Night Shyamalan would watch this movie and fondle himself.
The mental trickery begins before you even start the movie. When I picked up the box, the first thing that came to mind was “it looks like John Carpenter’s The Thing, but with a kid as the main character.” Seriously, look at that box cover. Someone was a fan.
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| images courtesy of Toy Robot |
Marshmallow starts with a cold open that plants you firmly into the mind of a young boy with a crippling fear of the water. Think of Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason, only it makes sense. The boy is Morgan, played with wide-eyed innocence by Kue Lawrence, who announced his arrival as an up and coming talent in 2024’s Sketch, and shows here that he can carry a movie that relies heavily on the audience identifying and sympathizing with him almost immediately. Lawrence has the earnestness of a young Henry Thomas or perhaps a Stranger Things season one Finn Wolfhard. Without a solid central character, Marshmallow’s twist would still land, but it wouldn’t leave you gobsmacked.
In these opening scenes, the filmmakers weave an almost supernatural spell, peppered with family tragedy and an unsettling feeling of disconnection masquerading as helicopter parenting. Especially when Morgan is told he’ll be sent to summer camp for no less than two months. This comes not long after the death of the only person who seems to relate to him, played with instant likability by the great Corbin Bernsen. It’s upon arrival at the camp that the movie begins to lull you into a false sense of security. People who grew up watching movies like Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th will automatically settle in, put their brains on autopilot, and reach for the popcorn, positive of what’s coming next. All the tropes are there: Bullies, jocks, nerds, sexually charged camp counselors, the one competent young female counselor destined for Final Girl status, the sweet and welcoming girl camper who befriends our shy hero, and of course, the spooky campfire tale that exposits the back story of our box cover villain. The voodoo of location provided by a real summer camp in the woods of Kentucky, all lensed with effective and atmospheric cinematography by Filip Vandewal, makes all this feel as familiar as stepping into the foyer of your childhood home for another Christmas.
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| images courtesy of Toy Robot |
Obviously, I’m gearing up for another slasher movie in the woods, and that douchebag who can’t stop lifting weights and banging his girlfriend with her bra still on is gonna die first, right? To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger’s detached dummy head: Get ready for a surprise.
Things truck along, the popcorn bucket gets emptier, and Morgan is making some friends—all genre archetypes, but still played for fun and laughs by a game cast—and everything proceeds exactly how you think it will. Until it doesn’t. Suddenly, during the most intense moment in the film, the script by Andy Greskoviak pulls the rug out from under the audience: Genuine surprises start hitting, one after another, culminating in a coda so brilliant that the late great Rod Serling would light a cigarette to celebrate the post-coital bliss only a well-orchestrated mind-fuck can provide. The last fifteen minutes of this movie left me spellbound and speechless. Not since The Sixth Sense has an ending left me so dumbstruck by a twist.
Things truck along, the popcorn bucket gets emptier, and Morgan is making some friends—all genre archetypes, but still played for fun and laughs by a game cast—and everything proceeds exactly how you think it will. Until it doesn’t. Suddenly, during the most intense moment in the film, the script by Andy Greskoviak pulls the rug out from under the audience: Genuine surprises start hitting, one after another, culminating in a coda so brilliant that the late great Rod Serling would light a cigarette to celebrate the post-coital bliss only a well-orchestrated mind-fuck can provide. The last fifteen minutes of this movie left me spellbound and speechless. Not since The Sixth Sense has an ending left me so dumbstruck by a twist.
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| images courtesy of Toy Robot |
I don’t dare say anything else. Marshmallow is a movie that must be experienced to truly appreciate the masterful sleight of hand. Mad props must be given to Toy Robot for securing the home distribution rights for this hidden gem. The presentation is fantastic and I can see this becoming a modern cult classic as word of mouth continues to spread. In an era of “safe” Hollywood releases that take zero risks and cost countless brain cells, it’s refreshing to watch an independent film that knows how to take the familiar and twist it into something wholly original. We need more movies like this.
- Blake O. Kleiner