NETFLIX RELEASES A NEW HORROR COMEDY
By Christine Viray, Staff Writer
As a horror movie fanatic, I’m always interested in watching a horror movie whenever I have free time. Unlike many of my friends buying tickets to see the new IT movie that was released Sept. 8, I was too lazy to head over to the movie theatre and turned on Netflix to see what it had to offer. I found a Netflix Original horror comedy that was recently released Sept. 1 called “Little Evil.”
I didn’t watch the trailer for “Little Evil” because most horror movies now put their highlights in the trailers to get people interested in watching them. I only wanted to know two things before watching the movie itself: what the movie was about and how it stood compared to other horror movies.
I read Netflix’s description of the movie which read, “Think it’s tough being a new stepdad? At least you’re not Gary. He’s pretty sure his kid is literally the Antichrist.” I wasn’t fully interested in the movie yet despite its comedic description. Unconvinced, I did a quick Google search. It got a 5.8/10 by IMDb and apparently 86 percent of Google users liked it. Even though I usually look at Rotten Tomatoes’ ratings before watching a horror movie, I decided to give it a go and watch the movie. Honestly, I’m glad I did.
“Little Evil” starts off with a comedic scene that took place later in the movie. Then, the story itself starts by introducing a real estate agent named Gary (Adam Scott) and his dilemma on how to get along with his stepson Lucas (Owen Atlas). The only problem was that Lucas didn’t want to get along with his stepdad, and often acted mischievously. Oddly enough, the only one who didn’t seem to notice Lucas’ strange behavior and Gary’s complaints was his biological mother, Gary’s wife Samantha (Evangeline Lilly). She repeatedly asserted that Lucas was completely harmless and that Gary was not trying hard enough to make Lucas like him.
In one instance when Lucas got in trouble for an unfortunate event concerning a teacher, Samantha became disappointed and said that it wasn’t right to blame Lucas. While that situation would be frustrating to hear about or experience, the comedic side of the movie made the scenes a little more laidback.
Despite the comedic aspect of the horror comedy which dominated most of the film, I found that the horror scenes were executed in an appropriate way; they weren’t too rushed or too slow —they were just right. While the film also used the cliché dark corridor scenes; when the lights are on for one moment before they flicker off and surround the protagonist in the next moment, there are other unnerving scenes throughout the movie that are far more eventful and they don’t forget to add a comedic touch to them.
Overall, I can honestly say that the movie is worthwhile to watch because it functioned well as a horror comedy without drifting off from the story. I’ve never watched a Netflix Original and this movie made me consider watching more movies or T.V. shows that are from Netflix.
After finishing the movie, I looked up the YouTube trailer for the comments. Some commenters criticized the film because Netflix made it. I’m glad that I didn’t go to YouTube prior to watching the movie; I wouldn’t have watched it at all.
