Little Evil

I was browsing through Netflix when I found Little Evil, which had come out recently. It seemed like a fun horror comedy, perfect for the day, so I decided to watch it.

There are many things I like in Little Evil, but it doesn't go above average. Of course the idea isn't original, isn't this a play on very typical stories about kids who seem to be the spawn of Satan. Most of them are actual horror movies, though. Little Evil mixes that horror story with the theme of being a stepparent in a humorous way, which itself is fresher than the movie might feel when you read the summary.

But in the end the story doesn't go where you'd want it to go. Of course some of the plot points are good, and the movie is fun and light, and there's something very special about it. But in the end the only thing this movie ends up being is somewhat funny. Everything else is actually quite superficial, and let's be honest, the humorous side probably wouldn't be as good if you watched this movie several times.

So definitely worth seeing once, if you're not too serious for horror comedies, but that's all.

The first thing to say is that the first two acts of this movie really struggle to truly find the line between horror and comedy. It tries to find comedy in a normal person reacting to a devil child, but that is pretty much every possession horror ever so there isn't much new ground there, and the attempted comedy often falls flat while also taking away from the potential actual creepiness of the scene. It's easy to rule this out as a failed attempt at recapturing the Tucker and Dale vs. Evil vibe.

But then the third act happens and the movie really comes into its own. The humour and tension are amped up and instead of being a shadow of dozens of horrors and a shadow of dozens of comedy it becomes its own movie and is much better for it. There is even a great message about the difference between nature and nurture and there are some good original ideas that make it much more enjoyable.

Overall it is a shame you have to wait for the third act to get going, especially since they show the catalyst for this momentum shift at the very beginning. You could argue they need the first two acts to set up for the third, but if so then they should have focused more on the comedy since there are way too many evil/possessed child films to care about getting that part right. Still though it's hard not to recommend this movie since the third act is really enjoyable, I just wish they could have gotten there sooner. Maybe just skip to that point.

Everything is technically fine here. Good acting, surprisingly solid special effects and it looks pretty good. But the actual content of this is quite tiresome. It doesn't want to go fully goofy like Hell Baby but also doesn't want to be a full-on horror. It wants them both and that's when it started to grate on me.

This part they want to be funny, this part is supposed to be scary and then we're supposed to care about the characters. Perhaps someone could or has pulled off these tonal shifts successfully but this movie does not. It's boring, predictable and neither funny nor scary.

I'm starting to feel like Netflix wants more original scripted movies but isn't doing a very good job of deciding what is actually good. Don't watch this. It's not terrible, it's just not worth anyone's time.

I wouldn't have watched this if I hadn't loved "Tucker & Dale vs Evil" by Eli Craig, which like "Little Evil" is a parody of a horror sub-genre. Unfortunately this film is entertaining enough that I was never bored, but it lacked the creativity and fast- paced humour a premise like this should have.

It begins promisingly with a lot of funny jokes, but after the first 15 minutes, the jokes kind of take a backseat to the exposition, and the humour becomes less crafted, and more akin to an Apatow joint. Adam Scott is great as usual, and though I expected his sidekick Al to be incredibly annoying, Bridget Everett was having so much fun I warmed to her after a while, Clancy Brown is also good. The rest of the cast is pretty average, Kate from LOST phones it in, and Turk from SCRUBS is distracting, as he's cast as one of the 3 useless comic relief step-dad friends that never have an impact on the story. The kid that played Lucas was also really awful, even by the standards of child actors. Why didn't anyone give this kid better directions. Nothing he or any of the other child actors said or did were well-done at all.

The direction was much better than any modern Apatow-esque comedy. Craig used a lot of horror conventions to his advantage and I wish the script he wrote paralleled his direction, even if the cinematography still looks like a cheap Netflix film. He does however, use identical speed-cutting transitions to Edgar Wright that is incredibly distracting, like with the same sound effects and pacing and everything.

The structure was not great, it lumbered in parts and then sped through the climax at an insane rate. The film also stops several times and repeats aspects, like expositional scenes.

I wish this were as strong as "Tucker & Dale" which I strongly recommend, yet "Little Evil" lacked a great supporting cast, or any innovative way to spin the subject matter. Instead, it's just a funnier version of the Omen, which was already kinda funny to begin with.

This film is hilariously entertaining if you recognize the intended allusions, particularly the nods to THE OMEN. Adam Scott and Owen Atlas are charming as step-father and son, especially in the water park scenes. Evangeline Lilly is surprisingly perfect as the ditsy mom; she delivers her lines with impeccable comic timing. I've never seen her outside of LOST and her performance here is spot-on. Yes, some bits are campy and silly, but the overall message is touching and relevant.