Little Bites

This is a movie I first heard about last year from Dead Meat and I've been waiting for the movie to come out. Now that I've watched the movie and found out the director of this movie is Rob Zombie's younger brother, I am now questioning my initial existence for this movie.

Positives for Little Bites (2024): The movie has an interesting premise to begin with and that's good. I also thought the performances from Krsy Fox as Mindy Vogel, Jon Sklaroff as Agyar and Elizabeth Phoenix Caro as Alice Vogel were all decent. And finally, there are some solid gory effects in the movie.

Negatives for Little Bites (2024): Like I said before this review, director Spider One is the younger brother of Rob Zombie and he is about as subtle as his older bro. Now, I am not a big fan of Rob Zombie as a filmmaker, so finding out these details made me worried about this movie. The movie doesn't do anything with its premise. There are a number of conversations in this movie and they are dull. There are random cameos by James A. Janisse (Dead Meat), Heather Langenkamp and Barbra Crampton that go nowhere. And my final negatives is that the ending of this movie was very confusing.

Overall, Little Bites (2024) is a bad vampire movie and while this isn't as atrocious as any of Rob Zombie's movies, this wasn't a good introduction for his young bro.

I was rather excited for Little Bites because the premise sounded unique enough, and there were some familiar faces attached to it. It tells the story of a young widow desperately trying to protect her daughter from something evil, to put it vaguely. Krsy Fox, as the mother, does a solid job and largely carries the movie on her back, as her character demands a lot from her.

There are only a limited number of characters, and the acting ranges from pretty good to rather poor at times. From the overall quality of the film, it's clear that the budget was limited and that Spider One and the rest of the team worked with what they had. While I appreciated the use of practical effects, it was obvious that the antagonistic force was just an actor in makeup. The film is very dark and poorly lit, which not only contributes to the cheap-looking effects but also does the movie no favors.

The narrative unfolds at a snail's pace, and the movie feels too long, making for a rather boring viewing experience. It felt like a short film stretched to over 100 minutes, with slow pacing and barely any questions answered. In the end, it was rather unsatisfying, and therefore, I can't recommend watching it. However, if the premise sounds interesting to you, you might want to check it out and form your own opinion.

Single mother shoos her kid away with grandma so she can deal with the bloodthirsty demon/vampire living in her downstairs storage room. Minor, independently-produced horror outing was something of a family affair: writer-director Spider One is also married to the lead, Krsy Fox, who doubled as the film's editor; both were producers on the film, along with executive producers Cher and her son, Chaz Bono, who has a supporting role. There's nothing at all wrong with the acting--which is quite solid--and the production doesn't feel slapdash; however, Spider One's script doesn't go in for a backstory, leaving itself open to unanswered questions and gaps of logic. This guy just wants to get to the finale, which has a comical twist--though, again, it doesn't make much sense. *1/2 from ****

Starts well enough, creepy and atmospheric. Immediately thrown into the premise which isn't a pretty on in its own right. Pretty horrific situation with choices that are moreso.

Then, well, it's sits idling a bit. Almost feels like a film made out of a short but there was promise. Kept me interested for a bit and just further continues down the hole that feels like filler, only to stumble into a disappointing "flat" finish. Overall, interesting. Chalked this one up as many"missed opportunities" as it was creepy and atmospheric and built enough tension, only to waste so much time spinning it's tires, it loses it's early-on head of steam.

4/10.

I enjoyed the movie. The first two thirds were really good, I'd give it an 8. The slow building tension, the acting was spot on. I was actually impressed with Krsy Fox's performance. Heather Langenkamp's performance was my favourite, she has a limited role but she makes it so memorable. The pace of the slow boil was good in my opinion. It wasn't so slow that I lost interest and it didn't rush and lose the delicate tension. The last third I almost felt like maybe the original script was changed? It took me out of the movie a bit hence my rating coming down to a 7. It was not bad by any means, I still enjoyed it. I would have preferred an ending that kept in tone with the first 2/3. I actually think that Spider One created a solid movie though. I actually would love to see him explore other genres, I think he could create an interesting body of work.