Zombies, apparently, can be part of just about any genre, and this rom-com horror flick is proof that new ones can pop up just about anywhere. Little Monsters concerns an Australian kindergarten class on a field trip to a farm. While they are milking cows and taking wagon rides, zombies break out and overrun a nearby U.S. testing facility before slowly making their way across the fields. When they arrive, it's up to their teacher and chaperone to protect them and fight their way out.
As far as zombie movies go, this is slim fare. The beasts don't show up for almost half the movie and are less terrifying than on comparable Walking Dead-type works. Meandering and mumbling, though often dripping with gore, the zombies aren't terribly threatening; perhaps that's why their intended victims in this story are children. We might have wished for more hard-R zombie action and frights, but I think we're a bit zombied-out, culturally, and I'm more interested in what else zombies can do beyond shuffling and munching.
The joy of this film, though, lies in its inherent dark absurdity. We begin not with the horrors (meh) to come but with our unlikely hero. Washed-up heavy metal musician Dave (Alexander England) just broke up with his girlfriend, and after a twenty-something-minute introduction, is living with his sister and taking his nephew to school. Once he spots Miss Caroline, the teacher, he's smitten and looks for any excuse to be in her presence, even volunteering to chaperone the class's upcoming field trip. And rightfully so: Miss Caroline is played by none other than Lupita Nyong'o, whose ukulele-playing joie de vivre as a teacher is infectious and wickedly funny.
Add Josh Gad as the bonkers, foul-mouthed, MILF-sex addict kids' television personality, and you get a bizarre movie that will have you laughing almost as much as rolling your eyes. It's a delightful, fresh, and also oddly inert movie that showcases Lupita jumping headlong into a bloody fight with hungry corpses. I wish the film was as hard-R in its violent, genre content as it is with its humor: Gad's antics notwithstanding, the movie tends to look away right when there could be a really effective scare. But, since the move's major motif seems to be Lupita singing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" while she plays her instrument, I don't think scares was ever the focus.
As far as zombie movies go, this is slim fare. The beasts don't show up for almost half the movie and are less terrifying than on comparable Walking Dead-type works. Meandering and mumbling, though often dripping with gore, the zombies aren't terribly threatening; perhaps that's why their intended victims in this story are children. We might have wished for more hard-R zombie action and frights, but I think we're a bit zombied-out, culturally, and I'm more interested in what else zombies can do beyond shuffling and munching.
The joy of this film, though, lies in its inherent dark absurdity. We begin not with the horrors (meh) to come but with our unlikely hero. Washed-up heavy metal musician Dave (Alexander England) just broke up with his girlfriend, and after a twenty-something-minute introduction, is living with his sister and taking his nephew to school. Once he spots Miss Caroline, the teacher, he's smitten and looks for any excuse to be in her presence, even volunteering to chaperone the class's upcoming field trip. And rightfully so: Miss Caroline is played by none other than Lupita Nyong'o, whose ukulele-playing joie de vivre as a teacher is infectious and wickedly funny.
Add Josh Gad as the bonkers, foul-mouthed, MILF-sex addict kids' television personality, and you get a bizarre movie that will have you laughing almost as much as rolling your eyes. It's a delightful, fresh, and also oddly inert movie that showcases Lupita jumping headlong into a bloody fight with hungry corpses. I wish the film was as hard-R in its violent, genre content as it is with its humor: Gad's antics notwithstanding, the movie tends to look away right when there could be a really effective scare. But, since the move's major motif seems to be Lupita singing Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" while she plays her instrument, I don't think scares was ever the focus.
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