Like a lost Dr. Seuss story from hell, Who Slew Thaddeus Simon Mulberry Pew? is a nightmarish if unexpectedly funny short about bored siblings Tammy (Lisette Bross) and Sammy (Billy Ray Gallion), forced into disastrous play with creepy neighborhood kid Thaddeus (John Kassir). (All three actors are adults, adding to the gallows humor of this 2002 piece by Brett W. Nemeroff, director of the television drama One Christmas Eve.) Despite the bouncy, rhyming iambic pentameter, Thaddeus rapidly darkens once Sammy and Tammy find Thaddeus to be as monstrous as his reputation. The kids' dubious solution: cover young Pew's head with a plastic bag. Once Thaddeus succumbs (or appears to) to the inevitable, a Cat in the Hat-like Whizzit (Armin Shimerman, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) shows up to make matters better... or, um, worse. The action is lively, the dialogue sprinkled with hilarious profanity, and the ending surprises. --Tom Keogh
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