Little Evil: An Actually Good Movie Spoof?

In 1974, Mel Brooks took the world by storm with the release of two ultra successful spoof films Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. After the financial and critical successes of these films, the spoof became a popular genre. Shortly after saw the release of three Monty Python films, Airplane!, Top Secret!, Spaceballs, and the Naked Gun trilogy. All of the previously mentioned films have become classics of their own. Arguably on genre was as successful as the spoof was in the 1980s. That success saw a turn for the worse starting in 1995 with Dracula: Dead and Loving It. While there had been bad spoofs before, this one was directed by the master of the genre Mel Brooks. The film was so detrimental to Mr. Brooks that he never returned to the director's chair following the flop. It soon became rare that a spoof would actually be a quality film with the market flooded by the likes of the Scary Movie franchise, Meet the Spartans, Vampires Suck, and the various Movie movies (Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Superhero Movie, etc.). In fact, the last "good" spoof movie was Shrek the Third from 2007, and that was a film that is widely regarded as the worst in the franchise. Ten years later, director Eli Craig of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil fame directed Little Evil, a spoof off of the popular 70s horror film The Omen staring Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) as Gary, a man who recently married Samantha, played by Evangeline Lily (Lost, The Hobbit Trilogy). Gary soon finds out that Samantha's odd son Lucas may very well be the antichrist.
So, can Little Evil be the first good spoof film in a decade, a streak that has lasted for three presidents? For the most part, yes. The main thing about the film that works is that it actually is pretty funny. Craig also writes the film and infuses it with clever humor and smart horror movies references and callbacks to films like Poltergeist while completely avoiding trash humor such as sex jokes and defecating jokes. Not only is the writing funny and smart, but the actors pull the humorous writing off . especially Bridgett Everett (Trainwreck) as Adam's friend AL, a gay tomboy who loves to drink, curse, and call people "man." This is the kind of character who usually gets really annoying really fast, but Everett really pulls the role off strong. I'm really curious as to see what she does next in film. Adam Scott is also pretty funny in the film, mainly due to his, for the most part, subtle delivery and his everyman appearance. His reactions to the supernatural events are accurate, funny, and probably how most sane, smart people would react to the situations.
The other major strength of the film is that there is some heart and depth to the film. Most spoof films are content with staying with surface level filmmaking, never daring to attempt to dig deeper. This film, however, does. The film really deals with the issues that stepparents have when it comes to raising children that are not of their own. Quite frankly, I didn't expect the film to do this. I mean, when's the last time you've watched a comedy or horror film that also tries to be Terms of Endearment? This is a very welcome change to the genre and one that kept me invested in the film throughout it's length. Even some of the classics like Monty Python and the Holy Grail don't have much below the surface. The difference, though, is that some of those classics are much funnier than Little Evil, even though it is still a pretty funny film. Therefore, the film makes up for it where needed. Even if it hadn't work (which it did), it would at least have been admirable.
Another small plus to the film I wanted to point out is how it dealt with the supernaturalness of the film. Usually films like this find a way to seem insulting to those with religion, whether it be Christians, Jews, or Muslims. This film, however, did avoid this fatal blow that could have undone everything quality in the film. In fact, the film is quite innocent in every way except for the language, which is another rarity for spoofs and comedies in general in this day and age.
Honestly, the only real problems I have regarding the film is that it definitely takes a cliched route through the film. At one point, a certain character actor pops up playing a seemingly good character, however I knew almost instantly that he was evil, which, shock and awe, he was. Very little in the film is unpredictable and much of which has been done better before. Not that this film does these things bad, it's just that they don't compare in quality to how some other films have before. In all fairness, there is one plot twist that did actually sort of surprise me, which definitely caught me off guard.
If you're in the mood to watch a horror film because, hey, it is almost Halloween, but you don't want to watch anything that will scare you into the fetal position, then I think this is a good option for a watch. It's funny, relatively short, and at times even charming. Little Evil is, without question, the best spoof in a very long time.

Little Evil

This week I watched the Netflix original movie Little Evil, and I recommend it. It features Adam Scott from Parks and Recreation, and Evangeline Lily from Ant-man. I have to say that while the horror film centered around demon children and the antichrist are quite common, this doesn’t strike you as a true horror film, in fact it is listed as a horror/comedy. I can tell you that it is definitely more comedy than horror, and so even if horror isn’t your thing I think you would find it in you to like this movie.

What I want to talk about this week is the mise-en-scéne in a particular scene from Little Evil. As a reminder, because as students we all have too many things happening in our heads, mise-en-scéne is the staging of a scene. The scene below is what we are analyzing:

In this scene the main characters are at a birthday party for their child. Within this scene we see the normal signs of a birthday party: a child running in the background, parents talking and supervising their children, and presents on the table by said parents. Looking deeper shows the child all alone on the swing, isolating themselves from the party, implying that maybe they don’t feel comfortable there, or that they don’t have any friends there or even perhaps that they don’t actually know any of the children there.

The another thing is the parents with alcohol; maybe my birthday parties were just lame, but my parents never supplied alcohol to the parents of my friends at a get together that involved children. This could imply that whoever set up this party wanted the other parents to like them, or that they imagined that it would encourage more people to bring their children to the party.

If we look next to the parents we see a small pile of what look to be presents. I could infer from the little amount of presents that maybe people didn’t know what to get the birthday child, they were invited last minute, or didn’t know whether they were going. It is courtesy to bring a gift to a party you are invited to, especially a birthday party. 

If you look at the furthest background of this still, you see a cemetery. Throwing a birthday party next to a cemetery is not something you see very often. Mixed with the child who is playing alone, it gives this scene a very depressing feeling, even though it is supposed to be positive. I mean, who throws a party next to cemetery? Plus, if you look at the faces of the women in the foreground they look shocked, or like they were not expecting the location of the party perhaps, or something the man talking to them might have said.

There are many things that can be inferred from a single still of a movie or TV show. Not many people pay attention to the extra things that truly make up a scene in a movie because they are too transfixed on what is happening with the main characters. So if you decide not to watch this movie I at least hope you give the mise-en-scéne in the pictured scene a thought or two. Let me know what you notice, or what you think is happening in this scene. If you get the chance and are looking for a movie that is a comedy I would recommend this one, but that is my personal opinion and the fact that I thoroughly enjoy Adam Scott.