Little Monsters focuses on Dave, played by Alexander England, a washed-up musician who breaks up with his girlfriend and winds up staying on the couch of his sister Tess, played by Kat Stewart. One day when dropping off his nephew Felix, played by Diesel La Torraca, at school, he finds out a parent chaperone dropped out of an upcoming field trip to a farm, so he volunteers to take the spot, mostly to be near Felix’s teacher Miss Caroline, played by Lupita Nyong’o. On the day of the field trip, the farm is attacked by a group of zombies, and wind up confined in a barn alongside television personality Teddy McGiggle, played by Josh Gad, with no one coming to help them escape.
The set up is extremely simple but Little Monsters really packs a punch, and that’s mainly due to its extremely likable cast and rapid fire delivery of jokes. This is a very funny movie that keeps that relies heavily on insult humor, and while the idea of characters just constantly getting on each other’s cases may seem like something that would get old after a while, the bit almost never feels stale. There are a couple of jokes here and there that miss the mark - mainly an odd repeated joke about Dave being fat, which he isn’t - but those come few and far in between, with much of the dialogue feeling clever, original, and fresh.
And that’s mainly due to just how great this cast is. Everyone here gives a really strong performance, and keeps the energy at a consistent high. Alexander England is absolutely fantastic as Dave. His progression from foul-mouthed, uncaring slacker to likable hero is an arc that may feel somewhat predictable, but the committed performance and ton of laughs that he brings often balance out a fairly standard storyline. He doesn’t start out as the most likable of the characters, but the film balances things out by giving him much more charming individuals to play off of.
England’s main foil is Diesel La Torraca, who is by far the scene-stealer here. He has a sweet, innocent charm to him, though the film rarely plays him up to just tug at the heartstrings. Instead, he’s constantly combating everything England says, though his intentions are so pure-of-heart, it gets in some big laughs as Dave drops a foul-mouthed insult or cynical viewpoint on life, and he simply reacts the way in which a child his age would truly react.
Though the star of the show is at the end of the day Lupita Nyong’o, in what’s actually her second horror movie this year. While her lead role in Us is going to be the more well-known performance, she’s arguably much better here. While Miss Caroline presents herself as a happy-go-lucky wholesome woman to the schoolchildren, she knows how to command a room and take charge when she needs to. And this film becomes a lot of fun when it devotes so much time to her just cutting zombies down as she moves from Point A to Point B.
The zombies themselves leave a lot to be desired, as there’s really nothing about them that distinguishes them from nearly any other movie zombies. Although to be fair, this is more of a character-driven movie than an actual zombie movie, so this feels a bit nit-picky, and at the very least, when the zombies are around, the over-the-top violence is a lot of fun. The only other major complaint goes towards Josh Gad’s character, who for the most part is really enjoyable, although does make one or two decisions that feel more like they were made just to advance the plot and felt a little overboard, even for his character. The one thing I will say though is that given the type of roles Gad is known for, it would be nice to see him in more roles like Teddy McGiggles.
Little Monsters works as both one of the year’s best horror movies and one of the year’s best comedies. It moves at a rapid-fire pace, with plenty of big laughs along the way, thanks to some razor-sharp dialogue. The cast is all top notch, bringing to life some instantly enjoyable characters who all play very well off one another, making up for the film’s somewhat familiar moments. With a great energy about it and plenty of re-watch value, Little Monsters is a wonderful gem.
Recommendation: Watch It
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