[Wicked Little Things]
Plot:Karen, Sarah, and Emma Tunney are all moving to a small town in Pennsylvania where, unknown to them, in 1913, a horrid mine accident trapped dozens of children alive, underground. But there's a problem. They're still alive.

Cast: Lori Heuring, Scout Taylor-Compton, Chloe Moretz, Geoffrey Lewis.

My Thoughts:Wicked Little Things indeed.

Review:"Wicked Little Things" was originally known as Tobe Hooper's "Zombie's", before it had it's title changed and was then tossed into After Dark's Horrorfest last year. The film was delayed for a long time, and hide nor hair of it was spoken about for awhile. That's not surprising, considering this picture had heavy potential but overall failed to deliver. The movie starts with some really bad people forcing small children to work the mines in 1913. An explosion soon occurs, and while the slavedrivers escape, the children aren't so lucky. From here it's pretty easy to figure out what direction "Wicked Little Things" is going to go in. But J.S. Cardone's film takes it's sweet time getting there. After introducing us to a family of three, Karen Tunny (Lori Heuring), Sarah Tunny (Scout Taylor Compton), and Emma Tunny (Chloe Moretz), who move up to the mountains where the decades old tragedy occured, due to Karen inheriting a house in the area..."Wicked Little Things" drags on and on...really for some reason, afraid to unleash anything horrific and blood curdling upon the viewer.

The problem with this is two things, number one...the three main characters aren't really that interesting, especially because other than a bunch of wisecracks Karen's older daughter Sarah makes about how she doesn't want to be stuck living amongst quote unquote "demented mountain hicks"...there's nothing interesting to focus on happening in the lives of these people. And usually with a film like this, the lead female gets a semi love interest who shows up later on to save her from the baddies, but even that's absent here in this particular picture. The second problem with this is the films title, "Wicked Little Things"...which pertains to the flesh-eating zombie children who come out of the mines at night, wielding pick axes, and various other instruments of death looking for fresh victims to slice, dice, and devour. Just how Wicked are they? Not very.....considering we don't see much of them until the third act.

That, plus, this film was shot in such darkness that the movies best scenes, which take place at night when the murderous zombie kids emerge from solitude...can barely even be made out on screen. This despite the fact that I was watching a dvd of the movie. One intriguing wrinkle in the movie however is a local weirdo who seems afraid to leave his home, but also knows the most about the children than anyone else living in the area. Probably because, other than himself and three local teenagers who pop in and out of the movie, everyone else is either dead or smart enough to avoid living in the mountains due to the tales of evil undead children stalking the woods. He also knows a way to keep the children away from his home, and passes said methods on to Karen.

Which works for awhile, until the cliches kick in, and Karen's youngest daughter Emma has made friends with one of the undead kiddies, and near the end of the movie runs off into the woods with her. Leave it to the kids in these movies to put everyone in mortal danger, which is exactly what happens when Karen and Sarah go after her late at night which results in alot of people getting butchered by the pissed off kids. Of course it's made obvious throughout the movie, and even more obvious near the finale that the children have an axe to grind (no pun intended), and really who could blame them? However, why...and against who doesn't necessarily become clear until act three, and quite frankly the revelation isn't very stunning, original, or creative at all.

Not to mention it doesn't explain why a whole bunch of other people were needlessly killed and conflicts with previous events which took place earlier on in the film. "Wicked Little Things" presents an interesting group of antagonists, and due to the fact that the nightime scenes are so badly shot...also presents some very impactful "sounds" of butchering, killing, and blood splatter. However it also wastes the opportunity to build on it's story and make it's villains a fearsome force to be reckoned with..thus making it an average entry at best.

Positives:The zombie kids were quite vicious as the villains of the movie.

Negatives:Badly shot nighttime scenes which were too dark. A weak story, lack of action throughout the films early parts. Uninteresting characters, and some key plotholes.

Overall:A decent picture at best.





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