Alexa: I picked “Little Evil” as this week’s movie solely for Adam Scott. I expected it to be subpar, and figured if nothing else Scott would be charming. But I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie is actually pretty enjoyable, if a bit uneven. I didn’t realize initially that the writer-director behind “Little Evil” is the same guy who gave us “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil,” another horror-comedy that I adored. “Little Evil” similarly takes an overdone premise and plays around with it for humor, but it’s not nearly as sharp or laugh-out-loud funny as “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.” All the pieces are there for an equally effective sendup of the genre, but it never quite reaches its full potential. The jokes don’t always land, and even some of the homages to horror classics feel a little half-hearted. But the entire cast is great and fun to watch. The kid is equal parts creepy and adorable, and I loved the stepdad brigade. (Side note: Does Donald Faison ever age? Was there something in the water on the set of “Clueless” that keeps that cast young forever?) Once the plot caught up to the flash-forward from the beginning of the movie, the story really picked up for me. It took a few turns I didn’t expect, incorporating some surprisingly poignant messaging about parenting for a film about the antichrist. This feels like a movie that won’t stick with me very long, but overall I did have fun watching it in the moment. I would recommend it for anyone looking for some solid, non-scary Halloween entertainment.
Joel: I don’t know, maybe this one is my fault. Maybe I expected too much from this movie. After all it wasn’t bad at all. It accomplished what it set out to do. I was enjoyable. At the end I just feel like I was expecting more. Little Evil was written and directed by Eli Craig who’s best known for his movie Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Tucker and Dale is one of the better horror/comedy concepts to come along in the past several years, so it’s possible I was anticipating his follow up too much, especially when it turned out he was saying in the horror/comedy/parody genre that had worked so well for Tucker and Dale. Little Evil just doesn’t come out of the gate as strongly as it feels like it should. We start with a middle of the story scene and then flashback to a week earlier, but by the time we get to that starting scene chronologically, it feels like it’s awkwardly placed in the movie. Adam Scott, who is usually fantastic as playing the one sane character in a world where everyone else is crazy, doesn’t fit into his role as snugly as he should.
Little Evil is definitely the kind of movie that’s worth watching once. It’s funny and lighthearted, and is a great October choice if you want to see something that fits the month but isn’t too disturbing. But after that one viewing, there’s no takeaway from the movie that’s really worth remembering.
Chris: I'll agree with Joel that it's almost unfair for this movie to follow Tucker and Dale Vs Evil, not saying that Little Evil was trying to be that movie all over again but the comparison is inevitable especially since it's the same genre and same director. Add all of that up with the Adam Scott hype and that led to a movie that I had high expectations of, almost unreasonably so. Being so closely compared to T&DvE, I kept expecting for there to be some logical explanation coming about what actually is going on and that Lucas wasn't actually the antichrist and everything was a weird coincidence. However, I'm glad that logical explanation never came and they decided to go all-in on the supernatural element because that did help create some distance between this movie and T&DvE. The one element of the movie that I just didn't like was Al. I get that this movie was over-the-top and absurd but I kept finding myself wishing that Al would just tone it down and try to say a sentence without saying "bro" or "dude."
Jason: If we’re being completely honest, I did not expect much from this one. The Netflix original shows have mostly been pretty good. Their original movies, however, have left something to be desired. That said, I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. love watching horror movies about people who don't realize they are in a horror movie. Also, Adam Scott is awesome. The first third of the film felt like a tongue-in-cheek love letter to good old child-based horror movies of the 70s and 80s. The references were numerous and on the nose. And I loved them! After they got done with that, the movie took a really deep turn! I was not expecting it to get as real as it did. I am not a step-father but I am a new father and have dealt with my own father related identity issues in the past. The feels were super real throughout the end of the movie.
Along with all this, the characters were fun. The step-dad crew was awesome. Al is everything I hate about men. I kept cringing at everything he said. And Sally Field was a welcome surprise!
There wasn't a lot in the way of actual horror this week but what we got was a fun, heartfelt story that I really dug.
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