Horror Movie Review: Bad Ben – The Mandela Effect (2018)

Cranking these movies out at an eye-wateringly fast rate, writer/director/actor Nigel Bach brings us the fourth entry in the Bad Ben series. A found-footage series that started off ok and has got steadily worse as it went on.

We had the original Bed Ben in 2016 (read our review here), the follow-up Steelmanville Road in 2017 (read our review here) and the supposed final chapter called Badder Ben: The Final Chapter that same year (read our review here).

Now we have Bad Ben: The Mandela Effect released in 2018 and followed up by two more, The Crescent Moon Clown also in 2018 and Bad Ben: The Way In in 2019.

That is a lot of movies in a very short amount of time and you have to wonder just how creative Bach really is when this is what he keeps pumping out. After seeing Bad Ben: The Mandela Effect the answer is simply…not very.

Is this the worst entry in the series so far? No, it’s going to take a lot to knock Steelmanville Road off that not so honourable perch. However, it’s not a good film. Maybe it would be alright if you hadn’t seen any of the other entries but how likely is that? Instead we have a tiresome and repetitive film that is nowhere as clever as it thinks it is.

We’re back to Bach being the only cast member as he once again plays Tom Riley. The man who bought Steelmanville Road from a Sheriff’s auction unaware that it is a very haunted place.

If you didn’t know the premise beforehand, the start of The Mandela Effect might make you think you accidentally put the first movie on instead. However this is a crucial plot point as here we find Tom in a kind of ghostly Groundhog Day situation. An interesting idea that does not work here.

Instead of a harrowing and clever story about a man doomed to repeat horrifying events over and over again. Seeing him come to realise it and try to break the cycle somehow. We get a mind-numbing re-tread that lacks any semblance of intrigue. Simply put, it’s boring and feels double its 67 minute run-time. Even Bach, the sole man behind this franchise looks like he is checking out mentally.

Bad Ben: The Mandela Effect could have been decent but the lack of effort makes it a missed opportunity.