Horror Movie Review: Little Evil (2017)

Take The Omen; throw in a strong cast before sprinkling it with a comedic edge & you have Little Evil. A film that thinks it is far funnier & far cleverer than it actually is. It’s such a run of the mill horror comedy with every joke & every reference having been done a zillion times before.

The movie opens with Samantha (Evangeline Lilly) running into her back garden in the rain where her son, Lucas (Owen Atlas) is. She tells him off for going too far this time before digging up her husband (Lucas’ step-father); Gary (Adam Scott) who splutters out that he wants a divorce.

Har har…

Sometime before, Gary is moving in with Samantha & Lucas a week after their wedding. Gary isn’t exactly hitting it off with Lucas who ignores everything he says. If that wasn’t enough the kid is also getting into trouble at school. More than just your ‘talking in class’ or ‘getting into fights’ kind of trouble though. More the kind that involves telling your teacher to go to hell. Followed by her throwing herself out the window to be impaled on spike railings.

Yeah, Lucas is not your average child; in fact he’s the Antichrist. Something that slowly becomes clear to Gary as the film progresses. Along with his friend Al, (a trans-gendered character) he realises he has to put a stop to Lucas!

Cue much hilarity & shenanigans as Gary, firstly doesn’t believe that the boy is evil followed by many awkward moments where he attempts to deal with it sensibly. Which never seems to work out.

Little Evil isn’t a bad movie & it has moments where you’ll be entertained & even have a chuckle or two. Its problems lie in how uninspired the whole thing is & how annoying the character of Al (Bridget Everett) is. For some reason he is written to seemingly talk nonstop to the point of irritation. Several times you’ll find yourself groaning & wishing out loud that he would just shut up. His whole shtick falls extremely flat as he is just not funny.

Evangeline Lily is wasted with the only real laughs coming from Adam Scott but even he isn’t exactly stretching himself here. The movie is very predictable & its ending is extremely poor. In fact the highlight of the movie are the bonding moments between Lucas & Gary with the waterpark scene being both sweet & endearing. These moments have heart.

A forgettable movie that lacks anything original but can at least boast a strong cast, good acting & a polished look.