Review of Little Evil (2017) by Haden E — 09 Dec 2017

"If you can't do something right, don't do it at all..." was an expression used by some past figure, forgotten in history. With this single quote, an anonymous individual instructed unknown numbers of generations, advice passed down from parents to children. Unfortunately for Eli Craig, the director of the film Little Evil, his guardians must have neglected to pass on this priceless advice.

Eli Craig is a seasoned actor and director that has both been a part of, and directed, many films. Drawing inspiration from one of his past creations, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, Craig once again tried his hand in the world of horror comedy. Taking the stereotypical horror movie regarding a demon child, tossing in a few poor references, and stewing it in a pot reinforced with a cast filled with well known individuals completely out of their element, Eli had brought his creation to life.

The entire plot was just a stereotypical horror movie lived through the eyes of Gary. We are dropped into the story after an awful experience at his and his wife's wedding. Finally moving in together for the first time, Gary has the life he dreamed of but with one small unexpected aspect, his new stepson. Trying to warm up to his new kid, Lucas, Gary tries everything in the book to form some kind of bond with every result ending in some spooky "coincidence," as his wife called it. With all of these strange coincidences, and help from friends and strangers, Gary comes to the conclusion that his stepchild is not natural, but indeed supernatural.

The three primary characters in this movie consist of a loving mother Samantha (Evangeline Lilly), a skeptic step-father Gary (Adam Scott), and the literal anti-christ child Lucas (Owen Atlas). Across the film, Samantha played the part of the mind numbingly stupid mother that insisted on concealing the fact that her child was the antichrist from her newlywed husband, a foundation that all healthy marriages should be built on. With strange occurrences beginning to spring forward Gary, the stepfather, is tasked with unraveling the mystery of his newfound stepson and being the only character who actually changes from his two dimensional form. Last, but certainly scarred the most from the experience of filming this monstrosity, Lucas, the living portal to hell, continues to attempt supernatural murder on his unwanted father. With two of the three major characters being portrayed by professional actors, you would have expected the major protagonists to be leading the movie in a positive direction, unfortunately, this isn't the case. Craig thought that to redeem the acting in this film, he would hire an extensive and impressive roster of side characters. Namely among these actors, whose character's names you can't even remember, were Chris D'Elia, Brad Williams, Clancy Brown, and Donald Faison. All of these actors are impressive and successful comedians or film stars, but not even they could salvage this horrific comedy.

Little Evil took after many films such as the Scary Movie series. Both of these films played off of other well known horror films and their clichés to help resonate with members of the audience who may have seen the films that are referenced. A fantastic idea in theory, but it was poorly put into place by making the references far too obscure and unrelated to their original films. This was apparent about half way through the film when Gary goes to see his son to have a heart to heart that would end in near cardiac arrest. Turning the corner, Gary finds himself face to face with a dark hallway that seems to shift when he looks at it. Proceeding further, he enters his son's room to find a room filled with spooky dolls and toys. All at once, they all begin jiggling and wiggling, with some even turning on and playing their methodical jingles. With this reference that we can only assume was to Woman in Black, Eli Craig tries and fails countless more attempts at a decent reference, a factor that could have kept his horror movie audience engaged and attentive.

After finishing the movie, I was left wondering whether the movie was just one large joke, taunting the viewer over the loss of the last 94 minutes of their time. If you don't mind laughing at the movie and its humor, rather than with it as intended, it's a film that can at least make a little bit of time disappear, never to be seen again.