★★★★ out of ★★★★★
Blood, guts and a lot of heart, Little Monsters may be the sweetest horror comedy you’ll ever see!
Written and directed by Abe Forsythe
After years of constant fighting, foul mouthed failed rocker Dave (Alexander England) and his girlfriend have finally called it quits forcing him to move in with his sister Tess (Kat Stewart) and her adorable son Felix (Diesel La Torraca), a kindergartner who loves Darth Vader and children’s television performer Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad- no stranger to playing an iconic children’s role).
After Dave takes Felix on a hilarious, totally inappropriate after hours outing Tess is so fed up with her brother’s slacker ways that to avoid getting kicked out of the house he finally decides to pitch in and takes Felix to school. As soon as he walks Felix into the classroom Dave becomes instantly infatuated with the teacher Miss Caroline (the stunning Lupita Nyong’o) and volunteers to fill in as a chaperone for a field trip to Pleasant Valley Farm in order to spend time with her.
Arriving at the farm (which is nefariously located next to a US Military testing facility) the children are delighted to discover that Teddy McGiggle is filming his television show there and after joining him for a song head out on a tractor ride to see the animals. Along the ride it becomes apparent that whatever “testing” was taking place at the military site has gone horribly wrong and zombies have broken out, breached the farm fences and are feasting on the animals, staff and other guests. Dave, Miss Caroline, the children and Mr McGiggle barricade themselves in the park gift shop to fight for survival- zombie hi-jinks and ukulele backed singalongs ensue.
Little Monsters is an utterly charming horror comedy with wonderful performances all around. Josh Gad is a perfectly creepy children’s TV host (who is exposed to not be as child loving as his alter ego would appear) and Lupita Nyong’o delights the children and the viewers alike as a pop music obsessed but totally bad ass teacher who will stop at nothing to protect her students. However, it’s the relationship between Uncle David and Felix brought to life by the performances of Aussie Alexander England and newcomer Diesel La Torraca that will have even the most hardened horror fans holding back the tears. Little Monsters may be about kids but it’s full of bad language, raunchy humor and tons of blood so it is definitely not for them.
Little Monsters is available to stream with a subscription to Hulu.