Movie Review: MAULER

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: May 30th, 2025 / 02:51 AM

MAULER movie poster | © 2025 One Tree Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Kate Noel, Sebastian Betancur, Skyy Perdomo, Sarah Silverson, Jayden Stith, Michael Sullivan, Lamarr Mattison, Nathan Cuevas, Spencer Frankenberger, Liz Cuevas, Adam Arabshahi, Tanya Champoux, Breck Cuddy
Writer: Terence Bernie Hines
Director: Terence Bernie Hines
Distributor: One Tree Entertainment
Release Date: May 20, 2025 (digital, VOD)

It’s hard to know quite what to make of MAULER. The low-budget horror comedy is self-referential enough to name-check most of its cinematic influences, but it seldom gets either really funny or scary.

On the plus side, writer/director Terence Bernie Hines keeps things genuinely unpredictable, with a couple of actual surprises.

A prologue introduces us to young Lucas (Nathan Cuevas), who tries to protect his mother (Liz Cuevas) from his father (Spencer Frankenberger) by means of a sledgehammer. Young Lucas kills his dad but is too late to save his mom. When Grandma Tara arrives on the scene, she is strangely unbothered by the death of her son and daughter-in-law. She’s happy to take over as Lucas’s parent, shielding him from the world and indoctrinating him in her own violent brand of religion.

Newspapers under the opening credits indicate that Lucas has grown into a mystery serial killer. (Why the press dubs him “the Mauler” when his weapon of choice is a sledgehammer is a puzzler – wouldn’t “the Basher” or “the Flattener” be more accurate?)

An onscreen title informs us it’s twenty years later.

We now meet five ride-or-die friends who, with one exception, are right up there with those teens who hide behind chainsaws in the Geico commercial as far as making poor choices.

The ringleader is Stevo (Sebastian Betancur), who is sure he has found a great get rich quick for the quintet. There’s an online contest where the first step is documenting spending the night in a “murder house.” Those who make it through this round go on to the next. The end prize is $25,000.

Stevo, who has access to his realtor dad’s records, has discovered that an old lady – that would be Grandma Tara – has died a few days ago and that a couple were killed on the premises decades ago. This site is perfect for the contest, and Stevo reckons they can add to the take by stealing anything they can find within.

Upon arrival, the group hears sounds coming from inside. This would be the grown-up Lucas, aka Mauler (Breck Cuddy), who is now seven feet tall, but still very fond of his mallet. He is torturing a young man (Adam Arabshahi), who Mauler wrongly believes is a drug addict.

From outside, the sounds are too faint to be identifiable as torture, but it’s clear someone is there. No problem, says Stevo, they’ll just hit whoever it is over the head and tie them up while robbing the place.

Stevo’s belligerent girlfriend Jada (Skyy Perdomo) believes this is brilliant. Coked-up Michelle (Kate Noel) is bored and thinks this sounds exciting. Adam (Jayden Stith) needs cash, so he agrees to go along. Only Jen (Sarah Silverson), Adam’s girlfriend, expresses her conviction that the others are insane and tries to talk them out of it.

While we know that homicidal maniacs are, to put it broadly, bad, Stevo and his cohort – with the exception of reasonable Jen – pose a real test of our sympathies.

MAULER is on to something, but it seldom gets its moments quite right. When Mauler strikes out of nowhere, we’re intellectually startled but never jump. Likewise, while the humor makes sense conceptually – we comprehend the basis of the jokes – we don’t actually laugh much.

MAULER ultimately displays a unique and consistent vision, even if it often doesn’t hit its intended targets.

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