REVIEW 083ou’re being a child!”, remonstrates
Sara (Nadia Townsend) with her soon-
to-be ex-boyfriend Dave (Alexander
England), at the beginning Little Monsters, written
and directed by Abe Forsythe. She is not wrong.
The film’s opening montage sees the couple
endlessly arguing in public places, and includes
cutaways to Dave inhaling a daytime bongload at
home, masturbating with his VR headset on, or
getting moved on by police while busking with his
electric guitar. All this serves to show that, while
Dave may be an adult, he is definitely arrested in
his development.
After he half-heartedly walks out on Sara and
moves onto the sofa of his older sister Tess (Kat
Stewart), he proves considerably less mature than
his five-year-old nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca).
Dave volunteers to join Felix’s class excursion to
Pleasant Valley Farm, less out of a good-hearted
desire to help out than to get into the pants of
Felix’s ever perky teacher Miss Audrey Caroline
(Lupita Nyong ’o). When ravenous zombies just
happen to break out of the ‘US Army Test Facility’
next door, Dave is suddenly forced to grow up fast.
Much like how in Roberto Benigni’s 1997
melodrama Life is Beautiful, the clownish
character of Guido maintained the pretence
for his young son that their captivity in a Nazi
Concentration Camp was all just fun and games,
the dedicated Miss Caroline must do something
similar (if less rooted in reality) here. She covers
up the apocalyptic dangers beleaguering her young
wards with a song on her ukulele, a good story ortwo and an irrepressibly positive attitude. This
contrasts, at least at initially, with Dave’s all-round
irresponsibility and unguarded conduct around
the children, while even he represents a step up
from the narcissistic selfishness of international
children’s entertainer Teddy McGiggle (Josh
Gad), who would be as happy as the zombies to
eat children if it served his interests. Played with
great charm by Nyong ’o, Miss Caroline makes for
a kickass heroine, and really ought to be the film’s
central protagonist. Sadly, this is all about Dave,
with the other characters, not to mention the armies
of walking dead, feeling like mere foils to our main
man’s arc from big kidult to carer (and obvious
father material).
If Dave and Teddy behave, in their different
ways, like little children in adult bodies, Little
Monsters comes with its own age-related conflict
of identity. For it is too amiably cutesy to hold
much appeal for Serious Horror Fans™, and too
aggressively sweary and blue to be suitable for
the children who might otherwise love it. Caught
in between these two normally distinct age
groups, the film perhaps captures and exposes the
juvenility that has always, if we are being honest
with ourselves, been part and parcel of horror. “I
don’t want to play this game anymore,” complains
one of the kindergarten kids near the film’s end.
“It makes no sense and the zombies look fake.”
She is not wrong – but being a genre viewer
requires us to suspend such disbelief and embrace
the imagination and anxiety of our inner child.
ANTON BITELDirected by
ABE FORSYTHE
Starring
LUPITA NYONG'O
ALEXANDER ENGLAND
JOSH GAD
Released
15 NOVEMBER
ANTICIPATION.
Like Lupita Nyong’o, like
zombies.
ENJOYMENT.
Contains some very
funny lines of dialogue.
IN RETROSPECT.
Language aside, even its arrested
protagonist might find it too tame.
Little Monsters
“Y