Director: Eli Craig
Writer: Eli Craig
Stars: Evangeline Lilly, Adam Scott, Sally Field
Plot: Gary, who has just married Samantha the woman of his dreams, discovers that her six-year-old son may be the Antichrist.
Running Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
IMDB Score: 5.7
Why I watched it: It’s a good cast and I really liked director Eli Craig’s film “Tucker and Dale vs Evil” I very funny horror comedy.
Random Thoughts: I say this anytime I watch or review a horror comedy, it’s the toughest sub-genre to nail, if it’s too scary then the comedy might not work and if you go too over the top for laughs you ruin the horror element. It’s all about the tone, it’s a balancing act.
What I liked: The set up doing the Omen as a horror comedy, it’s important to point out this isn’t a parody, so they’re playing with the cliches of that type of movie and they do reference The Omen in Little Evil. I will say since this is the director of Tucker and Dale vs Evil that here he’s going more for laughs, there isn’t the gore that was in his other film, this has more of a comedy feel to it. So the tone if lighter than I would have thought going in, but I’m fine with that if it works and it did sometimes here.
The cast is pretty good and the supporting cast is very good Bridget Everett as a co-worker of Adam Scott and also a step dad gets most of the laughs. The thing I liked that there isn’t anything made of the fact that she’s gay, she’s a step dad and treated as such. Tyler Labine has a nice cameo and really the jokes there are very well written and very clever unlike most of the film. Also want to point out that Clancy”freakin” Brown and Sally Field? show up, give them a hand for random casting.
The one joke I thought that played well was the fact Adam Scott is in this marriage and his step son id probable the Antichrist and he should run but he looks at his wife who is Evangeline Lilly and doesn’t cause she’s hot, it’s a basic joke but it worked.
What I didn’t like: First off it’s not a horror comedy, it’s just a comedy and a family one at that. It’s not scary and the tone is too light for the material, one of the plot points is he was to kill his step son cause he’s the Antichrist, that’s heavy that’s horror the way they do it so doesn’t fit and the tone slides all over at the end. They had a chance to play with this, to go big, I would have loved some gore you could really play with the evil child genre but they go for jokes that most of the time fall flat. This is a comedy pure and simple and yes it does resemble Problem Child more than The Omen.
I don’t mind Adam Scott as an actor but he’s too low key here, he brings no energy at all, he doesn’t play up the fear or the love of being a family man, he plays it bland right down the middle. It would have been way more fun to see Bridget Everett’s character as the lead, if they wanted to do horror comedy they should have played along with the kid being the Antichrist, what can I do I love him he has to destroy the world I have to support him he’s my step son, something other than what they did. This is a paint by numbers comedy.
These Netflix Original movies have been mostly disappointing they haven’t take any real chances, they could have done something different but instead they made a late 90′s comedy.
Final Thoughts: I did smile a few times, not laugh but mostly disappointed at the film not being a better horror comedy.
Rating: 4/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 