No matter what kind of day you’re having, when zombies unexpectedly show up your day is going to get interesting. Little Monsters is a new zombie flick that blends the horror of the undead with the cute, joyous and innocent fun of kindergartens. Or little monsters as some people would say. All in all, Little Monsters is a funny, heartfelt and at times aggressively vulgar film that is a welcome treat for the lovers of undead cinema.
The movie takes place in Australia and follows the story of Dave (Alexander England) a failed musician who’s down on his luck. He’s just broken up with his girlfriend, is crashing on his sister’s couch and is babysitting his little five-year-old nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca). Upon taking Felix to school one day, Dave meets his teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o) and is immediately smitten with her. A field trip to a farm is about to happen and Dave volunteers to chaperone the kids. Why not? He’s got nothing else to do and besides this could give him the opportunity to impress Miss Caroline!
Upon arriving at the farm, however, a military base that specializes in “testing” has a containment breach. This leads to a group of infected people prowling the grounds getting let loose but, instead of heading into town, the undead head next door to the zoo. Parents, employees and even children are killed and reanimate back to life. The only survivors that remain are Dave, Miss Caroline, the young kindergartens and Teddy McGiggle ( Josh Gad), the star of a television show that the young kids love watching. He has a goofy laugh and wears a green polka dot suit.
The script by writer and director Abe Forsythe does offer a unique blend of zombie violence and humor. Although much of the humor is aimed at sexual crudeness, I laughed most at the children who are caught up in the mess by being told “it’s just a game of tag.” I like the film’s concept but most of its humor feels a bit cheap in my opinion, even though the jokes never detracted from my enjoyment of the story. I also praised the idea of the zombies being confined to a small area rather than simply of killing everyone in the world or town. This, to me, was a fun idea because it presents a scenario where the children thought that everything happening around them was just make-believe.
The cast is quite small, the zombie makeup looks pretty good and the film does offer quite a few laughs. Heck, the audience in attendance was laughing quite a bit, especially with Gad’s character. Truthfully, McGiggle began to annoy me after a while because he acts far too vulgar than other characters, saying things that made me grin with disappointment instead of laugh. Plus, I felt there were way too many crude sexual jokes that made the viewing experience somewhat tedious.
This is just a minor complaint that I have but, on the bright side, the kids offer plenty of laughs. Besides, how would you deal with a group of kindergartens during an outbreak? What ensued was clever, funny and at times a nice break from the typical zombie flick where zombies constantly get shot and blown up. Sure, that happens in this movie but not as much as the other films of its genre.
Verdict: 3 out of 5 Stars
Little Monsters may be too vulgar and crude for my taste at times, but I laughed quite a bit. This isn’t one of the excessively gory zombie flicks, but with the addition of the young kids, it does offer a unique view of the undead outbreak. Truthfully, I think the zombie genre is running out of gas, but that shouldn’t stop any filmmaker from at least trying something different and Little Monsters is clearly doing that. All the cast do good work, even though I enjoyed watching the kids a whole lot more. If you’re looking for some good zombie fun, then Little Monsters should bring a smile to your face until Zombieland: Double Tap arrives next week.
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