Watch Little Evil on Netflix
Written by: Eli Craig
Directed by: Eli Craig
Starring: Evangeline Lilly, Adam Scott, Bridget Everett, Clancy Brown, Donald Faison, Chris D'Elia
Rated: TV-MA
Plot
In this comedy, Gary (Adam Scott) marries the woman of his dreams (Evangeline Lilly). but discovers her six year old may be the Antichrist.
Verdict
Little Evil deconstructs the possessed child genre while also trying to craft a heartwarming story. It almost plays as a step-parent metaphor, but being so grounded holds this back. It's never less than entertaining and provides more than a few quotable lines, but it doesn't reaches the heights of it's predecessor, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.
Watch it.
Review
From the creator of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010), this does much of the same, parodying the genre and flipping the story while simultaneously giving the story a little bit of depth. This is relatively grounded, much to it's detriment. It doesn't reach the heights of Tucker & Dale or The Cabin in the Wood (2012), the two main examples of the horror movie deconstruction sub-genre.
While I typically hate the 'how we got here' trope, I didn't mind it as much in Little Evil. The first scene is a rainy night with Gary's new wife Samantha (Evangeline Lilly), racing into the backyard where her son stands upon a freshly filled hole. She pulls Gary (Adam Scott) from the ground and he utters, "Divorce!" Being a horror parody helps, and we know where this is going.
I get that Gary and Samantha being married adds stakes to the story, but it seems like a glaring hole that Gary never really met his step son Lucas. I can see dating a while before they meet, but getting married and surprising the kid is a terrible idea. The father step son relationship drives the story, but it's lazy not to address this directly. Sure it has to be more than dating because otherwise Gary would definitely leave, but neither of them think the two should meet first?
Clancy Brown plays a pastor preaching about the end times. It's a role for which he's nearly type cast, playing it best in Carnivàle (2003-2005), a phenomenal though short lived HBO series. We assume the "end time" will be related to Lucas. The movie does a good job of foreshadowing and misdirection.
This quickly ratchets up intensity with Lucas pushing people over the edge. He tells his teacher to "go to hell." and she jumps out the window. I wondered if Samantha knew or was somehow involved in a conspiracy we had yet to see. She seems to dismiss everything crazy situation in which Lucas is present. She's been involved with multiple men that all meet unfortunate accidents. This seemed to share a strong vibe with 'Terms of Endearment', The X-files episode from the sixth season with Bruce Campbell.
At the same time Gary has friends telling him how evil kids are and how his new wife will always side with her son. This seemed like a metaphor for step parents and the horror they face coming into a situation with a parent and biological child, but the movie never takes that quite far enough.
When Samantha details the unconventional way in which Lucas was conceived, hitting many horror tropes as she seems to have on idea it was a satanic ritual, I wondered if she was dumb or just playing dumb. It's this and a few plot points in the movie that would work if this was more parody and less grounded. For most of the movie Gary wants to be a good parent so the ridiculous framework around him provides great one liners, but it doesn't quite mesh with the tone of the movie. This has plenty of quotes made all the more hilarious by what's on screen. A social service worker states, "It's never the child's fault, no matter what happens." as Lucas drags Gary's unconscious body through the hall in the background. That and I always enjoy a Ghostbusters (1984) reference.
This ends up having far more depth than I anticipated with Gary and Lucas's relationship taking a number of turns. It's unfortunate the plot has a few disconnects. Some characters are self aware, some aren't. This fits in a horror genre that attempts to show the other side or explain away typical, and often silly horror movie tropes. Little Evil shows the other side to the possessed child trope, but it isn't as revelatory as it could or should be. Lucas doesn't have enough agency to twist the story enough. He's just a prop for Gary who's a casual observer. Both Tucker & Dale and Cabin in the Woods had the characters that are simultaneously part of the twist and explaining away the trope at the center of the story. Gary is too far removed, robbing this movie of the power it could have had.
It's a good movie that's a lot of fun, but it could have been really great if it could have decided on being a grounded drama or an over the top parody.
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