Debunkers, Inc. – Review

Meet the Debunkers, LLC (no, not “Debunkers, Inc.”, as you might suppose, but Debunkers, LLC – the reason for the film’s title will eventually become clear though). A trio of high-school boys enthusiastic about mysteries and video games, they hope to one day be recognised as a legitimate business. To that end, their CEO Link spends most of his time obsessing over the small details of the business that help to make them look professional, to the extent that he neglects the health of the business overall; Snake, their “Vice President of Clandestine Maneuvers”, who moves like a ninja and apparently sees life like a videogame, with onscreen stats; and Doc, short for Doctor Mario, a quiet nice guy who mostly plays straight man to the wild eccentricities of the other two. Early in the picture they’re joined a foreign exchange student (from Canada!) who acts in the capacity of intern and, at the others’ insistence, picks a gaming-themed handle for herself: Sheik.

There’s a fairly clever The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in that alias and, pleasingly, the film never troubles to spell out what’s clever about it to non-initiates. What makes it stand out as pleasing is the fact that elsewhere in the movie, jokes tend to be so laboured as to spoil what would otherwise be their easy charm. There’s a certain CBBC feel to it all – that pause after each punchline to ensure the viewers get it. This isn’t helped by the strictly formula script, dropping the Debunkers into a spooky scenario with strong House on Haunted Hill elements. To make it work, it probably needed to be more knowing. There are the odd moments that play out in wink-and-a-nod fashion, such as a fairly well-done final confrontation, in which a number of revelations about various characters come out, and those are its strengths. Ultimately, though, it feels like what could have been a reasonably interesting premise, spoiled by its own uncertainty as to what audience it’s aimed at.