A school outing becomes a bit more problematic as zombies escape from a nearby military base. It’s up to professional nitwit Dave and teacher Miss Caroline with her ukulele to save the children, and the day.Can a horror movie be a feel good movie throughout? Yes, it most certainly can. And the sure-fire way to achieve this is by not letting the movie take itself too seriously. Shaun of the dead (2004) did this, so did Housebound (2014) and so does Little monsters. The one thing not to be forgotten though, is that even though the movie puts the comedic shenanigans on the forefront there should always remain a dark heart of horror hidden in the shadows behind.
Little monsters takes the age old ‘Mr. Magoo’ trope of pretending something dangerous is a game. This naturally famously happened in Bill Murray’s The man who knew too little (1997) and, with a child being the one bamboozled, in La vita e Bella (1997).
In Little monsters it is an entire class of five-year-olds who are being lied to. The vacation-farm they are visiting is being overrun by zombies and the teacher in charge Miss Caroline manages to charm the kids in believing it is a surprise game (and the class is winning, how cool is that).
Such a concept allows for a movie to put all the known zombie tropes from zombie movies of yesteryears on its (undead) head. However, Little monsters, hardly does that.
And when it tries (the ‘singing’ near the end) it actually fails.
As I said in the opening of this article Little monsters is, above all, a feel good movie.
In this sense the movie focuses more on the characters and their small stories than it wants to smack you on the head with visual gags. I don’t consider this a critique.
With such a title ‘Little monsters’ could easily have gone with a ‘zombie kids’ routine. A bunch of second-graders picking up arms against their fellow students.
Much like that game: Zombie playground.
But that concept has been done before in Cooties (2014). Which, due to this shift of focus, became a completely different style of movie altogether. Good in its own right, but definitely not a feel good movie.
So Little monsters tells a small, sweet, tale of people lying to children to survive a zombie outbreak whilst growing in character. It are the characters that matter here, not necessarily the (exquisite) bloodshed.
A child in danger carries way more of a punch than an
adult in danger.
‘Screw’ the lawyer in Jurassic Park (1993), but ‘hell no’ you
are not going to eat the kids!
But also because I like to look for the movie-tricks pulled to create the illusion that the child actor is in fact experiencing these traumatizing events. Little monsters is filled to the brim with these kinds of tricks-of-the-trade. An adult says a swearword and the next shot is of the child reacting, thus making it believable that the child heard said word. The same goes for the blood and gore; hardly ever are the children in the same shot with a ‘gory event’. And for their interaction with the zombies; I’m certain the friendly chap underneath the make-up cracked a joke or two before cameras started rolling. Me as a movie buff (and a somewhat responsible adult) take solace from this. Thank heavens the children don’t need any psychological help after this movie. Maybe they didn’t even realize they were making a horror movie. Much like the famous anecdote about Danny Lloyd in The Shining (1981). |
Little monsters focuses on character first and foremost. There are three main players: Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong'o), Dave (Alexander England) and Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad). And it is this trio of characters that complement each other throughout this sordid tale.
Dave is a wonderful, unbelievable, a*s the first thirty minutes of the movie. He is an utterly revolting character and thus highly enjoyable. Of course, as these stories go, the minute he meets Miss Caroline he begins his road to redemption.
Teddy McGiggle then is the other way around. He begins nice and becomes nasty rather quickly. It is obvious that Gad wanted to have some fun after his iconic childlike hero in Frozen’s (2013) Olaf. And I can’t blame him.
Also listening to his final words of the credits song is hilarious.
Gad is one of those actors that I always enjoy in all his movies (21, Frozen, Murder on the Orient Express, and he was the best thing in the mediocre live-action version of Beauty and the Beast – surpassing the great McKellen, McGregor and Emma Watson even who was perfect for the part of Belle). For me, by now, he can do no wrong. And the vile, cowardly, loathsome Teddy McGiggle is just another fun role on his repertoire.
To be honest, though, neither men really get a good/believable arch from bad-to-good or good-to-bad respectively. The screen story is just too light and frivoling to make that so.
But where this would normally hurt a movie in Little monsters this actually shifts the focus to the central (‘Mary Sue’) perfect Miss Caroline. Empowering her as it were.
Even if the movie tries to make her a bit more human along the way Miss Caroline hardly changes from start to finish. She is the yellow-dressed core of the movie that all the men and children look up to and rightfully so.
The fact that she is dressed in a bright skirt with swirly hair emphasizes this sweetness in a (traditional view) feminine way.
To such an extent that it is almost shocking to see this ‘traditional 50s housewife’ play the ukulele.
That is until she has to protect her children.
After her strong duo-role in Us (2019) Nyong'o takes on another strong persona of ‘somebody who knows what to do and does it’ but with a different flavour this time ‘round. Basically Miss Caroline is Mary Poppins with a axe. She’s all care and love but don’t come between her and her cubs or she will sweetly ‘put you in the naughty corner’.It is clear from the start that Nyong'o is (like all the other actors) loving her part (just look at the poster). Like the anti-Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Caroline is a wonderful character to set your teeth in to play.
To end with the kids. What can I say? They are young, inexperienced and absolutely loving this adventure called moviemaking.
Class dismissed
Little monsters is a modest horror-parody-feel-good movie that doesn’t want to shock you or turn your knowledge of horror-tropes upside down. No, this movie just wants to entertain you by giving you fun characters with their little stories.
Sometimes a horror-movie can leave you grinning at the screen long after a movie is done. Not because the evil monsters has been defeated in some spectacular fashion or because the female killer is actually a guy. No, you are grinning sweetly simply because everybody lived happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment