little monsters movie review

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“Little Monsters,” in which a class of Australian kindergarteners on a farm field trip find themselves surrounded by the undead, handles the zombie comedy with kid gloves. The key to their survival is their teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), who is able to convince the young ones that it’s all part of a game, and initially receives little help from immature chaperone Dave ( Alexander England ), and a tormented kid’s TV host played by Josh Gad . It’s all overly precious and just not funny enough, even if it is a blood-soaked tribute to those who would look at the story as just another day of underpaid work.  

Nyong'o turns out to be the film’s highlight, and at least it has her in a role that proves she’s game for ridiculousness, and (later on in the film) can master a dryly funny monologue. Along with Jordan Peele ’s " Us " proving the Oscar-winning actor's multiple talents, you should hear her sing "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift here, while (actually) playing ukulele. Even when she’s not displaying an alarmingly tender mezzo-soprano voice, Nyong’o is a life force for “Little Monsters,” cutting through the shrill buffoonery of her male co-leads.  

But instead of focusing on Miss Caroline, “Little Monsters” is instead, bafflingly, about a boy with a whole lot of growing up to do: grungy, 30-something Dave. He’s introduced in the film fighting with his girlfriend in the opening credits—watching them spar in various locations not being able to hear what's made them both so angry, the camera floats around them like vignettes. One would expect a zombie to pop up, but no dice. Instead, the story takes roughly 20 minutes establishing him as a now-recently broken up, heavy metal has-been (channeling some major 2000s Jack Black energy) who is just as loud and oblivious as the classmates of his nephew, Felix (Diesel La Torraca). The tedious puppy dog that he is, Dave’s fixation shifts to wooing Miss Caroline when he meets her one day while dropping Felix off at school.  

In an attempt to impress her, Dave offers to help chaperone a class trip to a farm, which just happens to be near a US Army base. But before a zombie outbreak next door, things already go disastrously for Dave when he realizes that these kids aren’t as easy to corral as he assumed, and that he has no shot with Miss Caroline. He's especially hopeless against Teddy McGiggle (Gad), a kid's entertainer from America on a world tour, who knows how to enthrall a young crowd, and sweet talk women like Miss Caroline. His chances shot, Dave sulks around, until monsters eventually force the class and the three adults to hole up in a souvenir shop.  

Writer/director Abe Forsythe whips up a relatively plain zombie takeover, which is a big tell on the movie’s limited creativity. Yes, there's snarling, flesh-decaying post-humans who saunter around, and sometimes make for gnarly disembowelments straight out of “The Walking Dead.” But there's little inspiration behind the zombies themselves, who don’t create any nervous stakes (even with kids in the mix), or get decapitated in snazzy ways. Nyong’o even has a sequence where she dives into zombie battle, but the film cuts away from it, only showing her after, her dress and hair drastically restyled with blood and guts. It’s another example of “Little Monsters” skipping past even the smallest of gratuitous genre delights—how could you ramp up Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o going ballistic on the undead, and then not show us?  

The zombie apocalypse of “Little Monsters” largely takes place during the day, a key detail in how the film yearns to balance a light heart with dark comedy. But Forsythe’s script doesn’t have the cleverness to make such a tone pop, instead filling the time with easy, cringeworthy jokes, like often making Gad fall to the ground hard, or watching Dave bumble his way to accidental heroism. “Little Monsters” even has a stereotypical joke about Asian tourists taking pictures, and it would be more offensive if it didn’t seem like it was par for the film’s shallow course. I did laugh hard when a maniacal Gad aggressively cusses out the youngsters—one moment in which adult cruelty barrels through youthful innocence—but perhaps knowing how funny that beat is, and not being able to think of anything else, “Little Monsters” then repeats it over and over, the shock losing its luster.

“Little Monsters” is not for kids, and yet it wants to be as cute as their singalongs, even just by its premise alone. More than with any usual comedy, your mileage will undoubtedly vary with “Little Monsters,” especially if you find kids (with their matching frog backpacks and little observations) unflappably endearing, or man-children instantly worth rooting for. But as someone who constantly struggled to have mindless fun with “Little Monsters”—its self-amusement is far more obvious than it is infectious.  

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Little Monsters (2019)

Rated R for bloody zombie violence, crude sexual content, language throughout and brief drug use.

Lupita Nyong'o as Miss Caroline

Josh Gad as Teddy McGiggle

Alexander England as Dave

Nadia Townsend as Sara

Charlie Whitley as Max

Shakila Zab as Zombie

Chris Bunton as Shane

Shia Hamby as Shia

Kim Thien Doan as Kim

• Abe Forsythe

Cinematographer

• Lachlan Milne
• Andrew Thompson
• Piers Burbrook de Vere

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‘little monsters’: film review | sundance 2019.

Lupita Nyong'o plays a schoolteacher fighting a zombie invasion in 'Little Monsters,' an Australian horror flick co-starring Josh Gad.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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A warm-hearted kids film at heart is shaken, stirred and blended with bloody zombie violence and cascades of scabrous sex talk in Little Monsters. Writer-director Abe Forsythe hardly lets a minute go by without trying to top himself when it comes to gross-out humor and sendups of genre tropes, and this Sundance midnight offering enjoys the welcome bonuses of Lupita Nyong’o as an ever-resourceful school teacher and Josh Gad as a loathsome kiddie TV host. A most assured R rating will prevent the natural audience of younger teenagers from seeing this in theaters, but word will no doubt get out about it among horror geeks and stoners. It could not have been more perfectly placed at Sundance than as a midnight attraction.

With “Bad Grandpa” having already been taken by Johnny Knoxville, Forsythe and actor Alexander England settle for “Bad Uncle,” otherwise known as Dave, a shiftless, good-looking, never-made-it Aussie heavy metal rocker who somehow missed his classes in age-inappropriate sex talk. If it’s dirty and vulgar, Dave’s on top of it, catching his ex in flagrante delicto, yelling a lot and helping out his sister Tess (Kat Stewart) by accompanying his Darth Vader-obsessed little nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca) for a few days on a school field trip to Pleasant Valley Farm, a sort of fun fair/petting zoo graced by the presence Teddy McGiggle (Gad), a noxious children’s entertainer in a silly green suit.

The Bottom Line Zombies rise up Down Under.

The only rays of hope and reason in this little world are provided by the class teacher Miss Caroline (Nyong’o), an upbeat, composed young lady who has a way of rising above the vulgarity and fray without being contaminated by it. But she’s just as susceptible as everyone else to being molested by the zombies, the fruit of some gone-wrong scientific experiments at a U.S. military base (in Australia?).

Said zombies look and move like most movie undeads of the last half-century, although they seem to walk even more slowly and look unusually unfocused, an advantage the little nippers sorely need. Still, there are a lot of them (somewhere in the vicinity of 500 per the end credits roll that names all the actors enlisted for the fun and games), and Felix has to learn that zombies aren’t intimidated by a Darth Vader outfit.

As required, there’s plenty of gore, with the zombies biting and chewing away on human flesh, although from the looks of things none of the arms and legs belong to any of the tykes, who are corralled and otherwise spirited out of harm’s way mainly by Miss Caroline, who will be assured to win a teacher of the month award if they get back to school safely. The part is hardly demanding and will scarcely figure among Nyong’o’s most memorable roles, but she handles the assignment of portraying a capable woman under pressure with lovely finesse without commenting on it via any self-conscious posing.

For his part, England is simultaneously funny and pathetic as a completely uncensored child-man; this guy may never grow up. Gad is good to have around as the all-purpose, scarcely concealed creep you just know will reveal a selfish every-man-for-himself attitude in this moment of mass peril.

Even at just 94 minutes, Little Monsters begins running out of gas before Forsythe gets around to wrapping things up — the zombies are too single-minded in their interest and notably uncreative. The late-stages involvement of the military feels rote and is unfunny compared to what’s come before.

Still, the pic irreverently builds enough good will and comic energy in the early-going to carry it to its conclusion, so it’s bound to gather a cult of some dimension.

Production companies: Made Up Stories, Snoot Productions Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England, Josh Gad Director-screenwriter: Abe Forsythe Producers: Keith Calder, Jess Wu Calder, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Jodi Matterson Executive producer: Jeanne Snow Director of photography: Lachlan Milne Production designer: Sam Hobbs Costume designer: Leon Krasenstein Editors: Drew Thompson, Jim May Music: Piers Burbrook de Vere Casting: Kimberly Hardin, Kirsty McGregor, Stevie Ray Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Midnight)

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‘Little Monsters’ Review: Zombies Hunger Down Under

Lupita Nyong’o saves kindergartners from zombies — and the movie from total schlock — in this wan Australian horror comedy.

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By Elisabeth Vincentelli

When Lupita Nyong’o tells a bunch of kindergartners, “One, two, three, eyes on me,” viewers of “ Little Monsters ” jolt to attention, too. The charismatic Nyong’o is easily the best part of this feeble Australian horror comedy, arriving Friday to Hulu , as Miss Caroline, a Taylor Swift-crooning, ukulele-strumming teacher who turns fierce when her class is attacked by zombies while on a field trip to a petting farm.

Unfortunately, the film’s nominal lead is Dave ( Alexander England ), a rude, selfish would-be rocker whom the writer-director Abe Forsythe sets on a collision course with utterly predictable redemption: Crushing on a dedicated educator and battling ravenous corpses will do that to the most terminally irritating man-child.

When zombies — spawned by an experiment gone wrong at a nearby American military outpost — descend on the koalas and the sheep and the kids, Dave, who tagged along as a chaperone, initially sputters. Faring even worse is Teddy McGiggle ( Josh Gad ), a superstar children’s entertainer who just happened to be shooting his show at Pleasant Valley Farm. While he reveals himself to be a foul-mouthed mega-jerk, he also lands the film’s single best line, so he is almost (almost) forgiven.

In contrast to the hapless men, Miss Caroline never loses her cool and steadfastly dispatches the lurching attackers. By the end, she looks like Mary Poppins after a post-apocalyptic Tough Mudder race — and Nyong’o slays both registers.

To Forsythe’s credit, his movie takes place in a universe where people are at least aware of pop culture’s zombie obsession: Dave’s young nephew , Felix ( Diesel La Torraca ) , knows how to stop them, having successfully destroyed them in video games. But “Little Monsters” does not move the needle for the comic-zombie genre, which has not progressed much in the 15 years since “Shaun of the Dead” and the 10 since “Zombieland.”

Little Monsters

Rated R for profanity and graphic consumption of human flesh. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes.

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Film Review: ‘Little Monsters’

Zombies chew up a petting zoo in this immature horror-farce, but star Lupita Nyong'o survives with her dignity intact.

By Amy Nicholson

Amy Nicholson

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Australian slacker Dave (Alexander England) excels at only two things: zombie video games and fighting with his girlfriend. Luckily, “ Little Monsters ‘” kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o) and her class of moppets, Dave’s, er, talents are perfectly timed for her disastrous school trip to Pleasant Valley Farm, a combination petting farm and mini-golf course that just so happens to be next door to a U.S. Military base experimenting with regeneration.

Thanks to Dave’s latest breakup, he’s been crashing with his sister Tess (Kat Stewart) and corrupting his precocious 5-year-old nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca). He’s got nothing better to do than volunteer to tag along with the kids, mostly so he can woo Miss Caroline with his heavy metal guitar. (Alas, she prefers ukulele renditions of Taylor Swift.) But when a zombie uprising chews up the lambs, cows, and tourists, Dave is there to help Miss Caroline save the children and see if he can win her heart before it’s ripped from her chest.

The only surprising thing that follows in writer-director Abe Forsythe ‘s colorful gore-comedy is Nyong’o’s commitment. The Oscar winner invests her teacher with such ferocious love, it’s like Nyong’o feared the Academy might see the film and retroactively revoke her statuette. Miss Caroline has two priorities: keeping her class alive and sparing them the trauma of knowing how close they are to death. She pretends zombie survival is a game. They’re playing a giant game of tag, she explains. The blood on her dress is merely strawberry jam. And when the hungry hordes chase the students through the park, she trills, “One, two, three — eyes on me!”

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Still, Forsythe, whose last film was the quite-good political black comedy “Down Under,” is primarily concerned with Dave’s maturity. In kids’ book terms, he’s “The Developmentally Poky Little Puppy.” Can a shiftless loser who can’t even be bothered to understand Felix’s Epipen become worthy of Miss Caroline’s affection? Or rather, can a character who’s introduced screaming at his ex, fake crying to his sister, and bashing children with doorknobs be worthy of ours?

Dave is so selfish and loathsome, so typical of movie morons redeemed by a perfect heroine, that the only way the script can offset him is by creating a character who’s even worse: kids TV host Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad), a sociopathic drunk who brags that he’s boned thousands of moms and “learned Meisner from Pacino — Al .” Gad, too, gives the role his all, even when it means pulling empty baby bottles of booze from his green polka-dot suit pockets while the score swells with sympathetic violins. In desperation, he drinks hand sanitizer.

The paradox of “Little Monsters” is that it’s so guileless in its story and execution, it could have been made for kids, except for the disembowelings. Still, Nyong’o not only survives the film with her dignity intact, the audience might exit admiring her more. Her deadpan humor and grace ennoble the slapstick. And the sight of her in a yellow print dress and frog backpack hoisting a shovel over her shoulder and marching off to decapitate some ghouls made the theater burst into applause. It’s not an Oscar, but it’ll do.

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Midnight), Jan. 27, 2019. Running time: 94 MIN.

• Production: A Screen Australia presentation of a Made Up Stories, Snoot Entertainment production, in association with Create NSW, Protagonist Pictures. (Int'l sales: Protagonist Pictures, London.) Producers: Jodi Matterson, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Keith Calder, Jess Wu Calder. Executive producer: Jeanne Snow.
• Crew: Director, writer: Abe Forsythe. Camera (color): Lachlan Milne. Editors: Drew Thompson, Jim May. Music: Piers Burbrook de Vere.
• With: Lupita Nyong'o, Alexander England, Josh Gad, Diesel La Torraca.

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Little Monsters review – school-trip kids teach zombies a lesson

A bunch of children led by teacher Lupita Nyong’o tackle a marauding army of the undead in this enjoyably silly zomcom

A be Forsythe is an Australian actor and director whose last feature was the satirical Down Under , about the Cronulla race riots – the ethnic violence that broke out in 2005 in a beachside district of Sydney. His new film is a dark but amiable and unexpectedly sweet-natured comedy on the umpromising subject of zombies. This is well-worked territory for horror and horror-comedy, but Forsythe makes it work.

Alexander England plays Dave, a waster and no-hoper who nurses dreams of stardom in the world of death metal. In return for crashing with his long-suffering sister, Tess (Kate Stewart), Dave is prevailed on to be one of the helpers for a school trip that Tess’s young daughter is going on to a safari park, where there will be a celebrity appearance by a creepy TV kids-show comedian called Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad). Dave had initially no interest, but he has pathetically fallen for the kids’ elegant, beautiful teacher, Miss Caroline ( Lupita Nyong’o ), who will also be going on the trip. So this unlikely school group sets off, little knowing that the safari park is next door to a military biological-weapon testing facility, where there is a very real possibility of a zombie outbreak.

The pure silliness of this idea is enjoyable. The children give guileless performances, and Nyong’o gamely plays the broad comedy for all its worth. As for the zombie action, with the dozens of extras shambling along, doing the traditional stiff-armed-head-on-one-side-face-covered-in-gore routine – well, it’s pretty familiar, and perhaps this kind of thing simply can’t work without a side order of comedy as an excuse. But there’s a nice rapport between Nyong’o and England.

Little Monsters is released in UK cinemas and on Sky Cinema on 15 November.

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Little monsters, common sense media reviewers.

Beetlejuice wannabe with potty talk, a bit of heart.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Some petty science experiments give a glimmer of s

Though parenting styles have changes a little sinc

The parents in this movie are a little too human:

Scary monster faces, gross behavior, kids scufflin

Women are portrayed as sex objects on TV and in re

Considering the age group, there is a good deal of

Some blatant product placement: Poloroid photos ar

Parents drink wine with dinner. A monster bully sm

Parents need to know that Little Monsters includes some mildly scary and emotional moments, plus some examples of bullying, mean pranks, and some language ("s--t" and "Godammit"). Parents behave poorly, yelling at kids, and eventually the parents separate. The monster world that Brian enters is a place where no…

Educational Value

Some petty science experiments give a glimmer of smart stuff; and there are some moral lessons having to do with loyalty, friendship, and family here, but these arrive after a lot of iffy behavior by monsters and humans alike.

Positive Messages

Though parenting styles have changes a little since the '80's, some of the yelling, cursing and arguing that Brian and his little brother are subjected to do raise some timeless flags. The monster world is also pretty extreme and chaotic, though Brian makes good choices at the end of the movie. Some positive themes of friendship and imagination.

Positive Role Models

The parents in this movie are a little too human: arguing in front of their kids, showing their weaknesses. But they clearly love their kids, and apologize for their mistakes. The monsters are a mixed bag, but some of the pranks Maurice pulls are pretty nasty.

Violence & Scariness

Scary monster faces, gross behavior, kids scuffling, and bullying behavior make up most of the rough stuff. Perilous scenes and threatening behavior also can scare sensitive kids, though lots of humor takes the edge off.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Women are portrayed as sex objects on TV and in references made by Maurice (who calls women "tomatoes"). He talks briefly about touching himself.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Considering the age group, there is a good deal of cussing by parents in front of kids -- and by the kids themselves (for example, "holy s--t"). Expect to hear "damn," "Godammit," "s--t," "piss," "hell," "bitch," "caca," and "jerk."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Some blatant product placement: Poloroid photos are taken and mentioned by name. Doritos are the snack that Brian feeds to Maurice. Dad eats Lays potato chips.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Parents drink wine with dinner. A monster bully smokes cigarettes and blows the smoke in characters' faces or threatens to burn vicitms with the butt.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Little Monsters includes some mildly scary and emotional moments, plus some examples of bullying, mean pranks, and some language ("s--t" and "Godammit"). Parents behave poorly, yelling at kids, and eventually the parents separate. The monster world that Brian enters is a place where no rules exist, which means a good deal of immature and chaotic behavior plays out. There are some major gross-out moments, like when Maurice pees into bully's empty apple juice bottle, and the bully later drinks the liquid. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (15)
• Kids say (10)

Based on 15 parent reviews

age 8 is way too young

Creepy but not in a good way, what's the story.

Brian's ( Fred Savage ) family has just relocated to a new town, where he has no friends and spends his nights trying to drown out the sound of his parents fighting. Things start to go wonky around the house and he is blamed for them. But it's not his fault that the remote control is missing, or that his bike was left out in the driveway -- there is a devilish monster under his bed named Maurice ( Howie Mandel ) who is eager to bring Brian into his wacked out monster world. Through challenges and chaos, the kid and the monster forge a friendship that proves memorable to them both.

Is It Any Good?

For a movie about monsters, this flick has a bit of heart. It captures the loneliness of a kid who has moved to a new town and whose parents are in a bad way. But some of the arguments and cursing from the parents beg the question of whether their participation is really necessary to the plot of the film, or just an attempt to anchor it in a gritty reality.

Kids and tweens might appreciate the feisty and juvenile behavior that Howie Mandel's Maurice brings to the screen, but viewers who have seen Beetlejuice will see more than a little resemblance to Michael Keaton 's famous ghoul. He does warm up as the movie progresses, but adults might find the characterization little more than an irritant with a penchant for pulling down people's pants. Thanks to the creepy sets, spooky masks, and Fred Savage's candid portrayal of an 11-year-old kid, this movie deserves a small spot in the comedic monster movie pantheon.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about childhood fears. What scares you the most? Something hiding under the bed? What makes the idea of monsters scary? Did you find Maurice scary?

At what age is watching scary movies fun? Have you ever wished you hadn't seen something? How did you get the scary images or thoughts out of your mind?

Movie Details

• In theaters : April 6, 1989
• On DVD or streaming : April 6, 2005
• Cast : Daniel Stern , Fred Savage , Howie Mandel
• Director : Richard Greenberg
• Studio : MGM/UA
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Friendship , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
• Run time : 105 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : adult situations/language, violence
• Last updated : October 31, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Little Monsters

A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids'-show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies. A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids'-show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies. A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids'-show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.

• Abe Forsythe
• Lupita Nyong'o
• Alexander England
• 227 User reviews
• 148 Critic reviews
• 59 Metascore
• 3 wins & 10 nominations

• Miss Caroline

• Teddy McGiggle

• Army General

• (as Jack Shuback)

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Did you know

• Trivia Originally, the producers couldn't get the rights to use Taylor Swift 's "Shake it Off" in the film, as they were denied by the record label. Lupita Nyong'o is a big fan of the song and saw it as pivotal part of the screenplay, which led her to personally get in touch with Swift to explain why the song was important to her and the narrative, after which Swift granted her the rights.

Teddy McGiggle : I fucking hate those little Kiddlywinks. Fucking the shit out of their moms was the only thing that made it better, until it didn't.

Teddy McGiggle : You realize that you're only doing it because you're dead inside. And it's the only thing that keeps you from killing yourself.

• Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Smartest Decisions in Zombie Movies (2021)
• Soundtracks Shake it Off Written by Taylor Swift , Shellback and Max Martin Performed by Lupita Nyong'o and Alexander England Published by Sony/ATV Tree Publishing and MXM Music AB Administered by Kobalt Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd

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Little Monsters Review

15 Nov 2019

Little Monsters

Little Monsters is an object lesson in how to pull off edgy comedy. Throughout this surprisingly excellent Australian zombie flick, writer-director Abe Forsythe flirts with bad taste and beyond. One joke, involving onanism and a photograph, is at once of the can’t believe they went there and has to be seen to be believed schools. Yet there’s a sweetness here that tempers the outrageousness. At heart, Little Monsters has a lot of heart.

It also gets a pass on account of being very, very funny. Don’t be fooled by the presence of more zombies than you can shake a George A. Romero box set at. A comedy-horror this may be, but — a couple of mildly tense escapes aside — the emphasis here is firmly on the former. Perhaps that’s a natural by-product of focusing the action around a group of loveable, and not killable, kids. In doing so, Forsythe almost has no choice but to ease off on the scares, with his classically slow zombies (the fast-moving breed would make this a very short film) figures of fun rather than fright.

Nyong'o imbues a relatively thin role 
> with plenty of charm.

And it allows him to focus on his ragtag group of characters. Nyong’o , a world away from her last outing in Us , is Miss Caroline, the good-natured schoolteacher who absolutely, positively will not let anything threaten her young charges. Despite the star billing, though, this isn’t her film. She doesn’t show up until roughly a third of the way in, and when she does, it’s as nothing more than an object of desire for Alexander England’s bedraggled if charming loser, Dave. It’s to Nyong’o’s credit that she seizes this relatively thin role and imbues it 
with plenty of charm and even a hint of depth.

Instead, the focus here is on Dave, a shambling, shuffling manchild who, in a microcosm of the film’s wrestling match with the boundaries of taste, is fighting a losing battle with his worst impulses. A deeply un-self-aware musician who thinks it acceptable to take his young nephew along to confront his ex-girlfriend, or play a death metal ditty to a bus of schoolkids, it’s a bold choice of lead for a movie like this. Thankfully, England — who you may remember being offed by a xenomorph in Alien: Covenant — has a nice line in sleazy charm, particularly as Dave, inspired by Miss Caroline (and not just his desire to get into her pants) and his young nephew, tries to become a better man.

There are missteps. While Josh Gad gets a fair amount of laughs gadding about as foul-mouthed, drunken kids’ entertainer Teddy McGiggle, it’s a one-note character, and nothing we haven’t seen before. And the almost complete lack of stakes means that when the gags don’t land, there’s a fair amount of dead air. By and large, though, it’s an unexpected gem.

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Movies | 21 11 2019

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Little Monsters Reviews

It is 100 minutes of nails on a chalkboard and, in a more just world, would have resulted in the end of Howie Mandel's career.

Full Review | Sep 23, 2020

A dismal disaster.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 27, 2019

It pained me to watch such an impressive group of talent (the movie was written by the guys who made Aladdin, for crying out loud) shit the bed so massively, especially when my nostalgia reserves were so primed and ready to go.

Full Review | Sep 27, 2019

Some of it is actually funny, if you still have a little brattiness left in your Bratskeller.

For a movie about monsters, this flick has a bit of heart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 27, 2019

A definite gateway title for blossoming horror fans.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2013

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 29, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 0/5 | Feb 9, 2005

Passable kiddie flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 29, 2004

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – Little Monsters (2019)

October 10, 2019 by Shaun Munro

Little Monsters , 2019.

Written and directed by Abe Forsythe. Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Gad, Alexander England, Nadia Townsend, Kat Stewart, Diesel La Torraca, and Stephen Peacocke.

A washed-up musician teams up with a teacher and a kids show personality to protect young children from a sudden outbreak of zombies.

Watching this Australian rom-zom-com from director Abe Forsythe ( Down Under ), the question kept rattling around in my head; how the hell did he convince Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad to star in it? And that’s not a knock against the film, which is a perfectly serviceable comedy-horror jaunt, but simply that the logistical mechanics of this film existing in its final form are really quite bizarre.

Protagonist Dave (Alexander England) is a weed-loving man-child with dreams of becoming a professional musician, who was recently ditched by his girlfriend and is now forced to sleep on his sister’s sofa. But when taking his 5-year-old nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca) to school, he meets the charming, peppy Miss Caroline (Nyong’o) and is immediately smitten.

Dave quickly agrees to help Miss Caroline chaperone the class trip to a petting zoo, only for a nearby military installation to accidentally free a zombie horde into the surrounding area. Dave, Caroline and foul-mouthed children’s entertainer Teddy McGiggle (Gad) must then team up to protect their pint-sized charges from the blood-thirsty creatures.

If  Little Monsters ‘ title implied to you that this would be 90 minutes of Lupita Nyong’o fending off zombified children, I’ll let you down now; this isn’t that film at all, sadly. And if you’re a savvy genre fan craving an inventive, blood-soaked good time in the vein of Shaun of the Dead , this isn’t that film either.

Indeed, the red stuff is in shockingly short, even timid supply; the much-circulated image of Miss Caroline’s blood-soaked yellow sundress is actually caused by an event which occurs off-screen. And while the brief bursts of gore are convincing enough in isolation, they’re not terribly creative. But what Forsythe’s film lacks in true invention, it compensates for considerably with its infectiously charming personality, girded by a string of fun one-liners and, best of all, three knowing lead performances.

Aussie actor England makes for a likeably roughshod slacker lead, even if the film is categorically wrestled away by its two Hollywood attractions. Nyong’o proves impeccably cast as the luminous, irrepressibly cheery Miss Caroline, her sunny disposition and penchant for playing Taylor Swift songs on the ukulele allowing her to display an uncommon amount of on-screen warmth.

This is juxtaposed hilariously with her disgust at the initial onset of the zombie shenanigans, and though her eventual turn to Badass in a Yellow Sundress probably could’ve been played for stronger laughs, it’s evocative all the same. Better still, she’s in the film a whole lot more than you might expect given her fame and schedule, with precious little effort made to cut around her.

Giving by far the film’s most effervescent performance, however, is Josh Gad, as a gobby, sex-addicted kids’ TV host whose composure is almost immediately obliterated once the zombies show up, dropping F-bombs left and right in front of the kids while seeking to keep number one safe above all else.

While at first Gad’s performance – or rather, his character – might seem a bit one-note as a singular loud-mouth, an hilarious mid-film aside reveals a more depressing inner-truth which informs the remainder. Most importantly, Gad commits totally to the part, even if he most likely had a limited schedule given how often he’s conveniently shuttled out of the movie for entire scenes at a time.

The central trio and La Torraca’s incredulous young lead work hard enough that it’s relatively easy to forgive the stock plotting; the loser using a zombie catastrophe to fix his life, the inevitable romantic subplot, and all manner of manufactured peril. The inclusion of a Day of the Dead -style military detour feels like B-roll footage intended to pad the whole out to feature length, though.

The pic’s pervading sweetness ultimately does a lot for it, not layering the sentiment on too thickly, with Dave’s internal anguish well-realised and leading to a genuinely poignant third-act heart-to-heart. A later invocation of a certain Neil Diamond classic might prove one treacly spoonful too far, though.

Overly broad as a rom-zom-com and surprisingly low on quality gore, Little Monsters nevertheless succeeds as a zany, genre-tinged character comedy.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Shaun Munro – Follow me on  Twitter  for more film rambling.

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The Missed Opportunity of Little Monsters, a Zombie Movie That Never Quite Settles In

Rarely have I seen a horror-comedy as joyless as Little Monsters . Which feels like a weird (and sad) thing to say, because rarely have I seen a horror-comedy that is also so insistent in its humor, so determined to try and entertain me, as Little Monsters . It’s fast, loud, and impossibly shrill — except when it quiets down, which is when it briefly, belatedly comes to life.

The loudness and shrillness begin early, with the film’s opening montage of a viciously bickering Australian couple, has-been rocker Dave (Alexander England) and real-estate agent Sara (Nadia Townsend), as they scream at each other in a variety of settings — at the store, at home, in the car, at a restaurant among friends. Soon enough, loser Dave has moved in with his sister Tess (Kat Stewart) and her 5-year-old, Felix (Diesel La Torraca), but he continues to cause havoc at her home — arguing over the food, wasting time on the couch with his VR video games, and yelling all sorts of absurd profanities in the child’s presence.

The sustained blast of unpleasantness with which Little Monsters kicks off might have been bracing had there been any wit or humor to Dave’s selfish, simple-minded jagoffery. Or even some humanity. We know of course that Dave will eventually learn his lesson and become a better man — because this is a movie, and he is its lead — but England and writer-director Abe Forsythe give him no sense of inner life, no hint of charm or charisma. He’s a profoundly uninteresting character, and by the time he decides to accompany Felix and his school chums on a field trip to a petting zoo in an effort to woo their cute teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), I had already checked out on whatever else this obnoxious dillweed might do. Then came Teddy McGiggles (Josh Gad), an aggressively annoying, alcoholic children’s-TV personality, because apparently the film wasn’t already irritating enough.

Have I mentioned that this is a zombie movie?

Well, it’s a zombie movie. There’s an American military base nearby, and a test has gone wrong, so soon zombies are invading the petting zoo, and Dave and Miss Caroline and Teddy McGiggles and the kids hole up at a gift shop. The undead slowly roam the grounds, pressing up against windows, munching on arms, and generally looking ridiculous. Forsythe attempts to mine so much familiar humor with these overexposed monsters that I can’t decide if he’s never seen other zombie comedies like Shaun of the Dead , or if he’s only seen other zombie comedies like Shaun of the Dead .

And then, suddenly, the movie grows a soul. Or maybe it was already there, but I couldn’t see it through the distracting haze of the characters’ noxious buffoonery. Amid the grotesque gore and profanity, Miss Caroline, armed with a ukulele and her bright demeanor, tries to keep the kids calm and safe and happy, cheerfully singing songs and playing games and speaking to them quietly. Nyong’o brings both grace and effervescence to the part, which makes for a welcome, pointed contrast to the insanity that surrounds her. Her scenes with the children are so effective that they become something more — a resonant metaphor for our need (be it as parents, teachers, or just plain human beings) to persevere and preserve some semblance of innocence in a world gone haywire.

That was probably the idea all along, and perhaps speaks to why so much of the rest of the film feels so manic, so unhinged and hostile — the better to highlight the oasis of kindness and goodness that Miss Caroline represents. Theoretically, it’s the right idea: to create a formal tension to echo the narrative one. But theory only gets you so far if you botch the execution. The most dispiriting thing about Little Monsters are the occasional glimpses of the film it could have been.

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Movie Review: Little Monsters (2019)

• Vincent Gaine
• Movie Reviews
• --> October 23, 2019

As lazy and obvious a comment as this is, Little Monsters is the Australian answer to “Shaun of the Dead.” From the interweaving of domestic and personal issues with the problems of a zombie outbreak, to the referential rendering of the undead and how they operate, writer-director Abe Forsythe displays a snappy wit, a warmth for his characters, a clear affection for genre cinema and a talent for splatter and gore that echoes Edgar Wright’s brilliant 2004 zom-rom-com. But Forsythe dares to go where Wright feared to tread (or had no reason to): He works with children and animals!

The film begins very much as a domestic comedy, as we are introduced to our apparent hero Dave (Alexander England, “ Alien: Covenant ”). Dave is what might happen if you merged Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Frost) from “Shaun of the Dead”: A pitiful, layabout man child clinging on to the now distant time when he was in a moderately successful band, and therefore cool. His days consist largely of (pointless) busking, smoking weed, masturbating and arguing with his girlfriend Sara (Nadia Townsend, “ Knowing ”). The title sequence is played over an argument montage between Dave and Sara, quarreling about seemingly everything in their relationship. It is the kind of sequence that could be painful to watch — and clearly is for their friends — but Forsythe’s interspersing of the arguments with the hopelessness of Dave largely justifies Sara’s anger. Some of the arguments are seen and heard, others just seen or heard, but it is all understandable.

The deftness of this opening montage demonstrates Forsythe’s cinematic skill, as camera moves, sharp cuts and varying focus convey all we need to know in an economical fashion. After walking out on Sara, Dave crashes on his sister Tess’ (Kat Stewart, “West of Sunshine”) couch and tries to learn responsibility by helping to care of his nephew Felix (Diesel La Torraca). Dave’s attempts to be a good uncle lead him to encounter Felix’s gorgeous teacher Miss Audrey Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o, “ Us ”). In a transparent attempt to get closer to Audrey, Dave offers to help chaperone a school trip to a petting zoo. As it would happen, the zoo, filled with adorable lambs, kangaroos and koalas, is next to an American military base which suffers a zombie outbreak, because why wouldn’t it? From there, hilarity and horrors ensue with gleeful abandon.

One of the challenges of presenting monsters familiar to the audience is how familiar they are to the characters. Again like “Shaun of the Dead,” Little Monsters uses a video game to introduce both the concept of zombies and how to deal with them, but once Audrey and Dave encounter actual zombies there is a learning curve before they figure out how to deal with them. In the absence of firearms, necessity breeds invention, and there is a winning delight as Audrey accidentally stabs an animated corpse with a pitchfork, only to find the rotting bastard is still moving and she needs to pinion him to a tree. Later, when she discovers the best way to dispatch zombies with a spade, her relieved delight is palatable as, crucially, it didn’t take her took long. While Little Monsters does include the horror trope of characters being very stupid, the characters in question tend to be stupid anyway, while the smart one doesn’t make that kind of mistake. Interestingly, there is further familiarity with the walking undead, as two characters ask if “this time” they are dealing with slow or fast zombies. Purists can relax, as these are properly old school, Romero-style zombies, facilitating humor with their slow movements that allows potential victims to run around them (despite many people still getting caught) while not skimping on the gore.

The film’s blend of gory shocks and smart humor proves a winning combination, especially with the addition of two further contrasting elements. First is the foul-mouthed and utterly inappropriate behavior of Dave and also Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad, “ Murder on the Orient Express ”), a children’s entertainer beloved by Felix and the other kids, who turns out to be even worse than Dave in his selfish and crass behavior, not to mention confessions of sexaholism and being so desperate for a drink that he downs methylated spirit. Second is the kids themselves. Felix is the most prominent but others also stand out (including one that is the butt of unnecessary fat kid jokes), and together the five-year olds constitute an entertaining bunch that are both endearing and at times ghastly, although it is often unclear who is the biggest kid of the lot.

Fortunately, there is at least one adult in all this craziness. Audrey is brilliant: Fierce yet compassionate, resourceful and affectionate. Whether she is calming Dave down or putting Teddy in his place (with a pointed souvenir, no less) or convincing the children that everything going on around them is a game, she is a kick-ass heroine who dispatches zombies with the same competence as teaching her students to care, think and develop. The film is pleasingly egalitarian, as while Audrey takes the lead, Dave’s immature and irresponsible behavior is never excused but still made understandable, making his arc compelling. Indeed, when his childhood trauma surfaces, Dave becomes more sympathetic as we realize his stunted development has a particular reason. As is often the case, being stuck together in a zombie outbreak (we’ve all been there) causes bonds to develop, incorporating Audrey, Dave and Teddy, and thus the audience can feel the danger they are in.

While it may offer little that is original, Little Monsters incorporates a great deal of imaginative fun. The sentiment, scares and sniggers are well-balanced and Forsythe features many inventive moments, especially references to Darth Vader. And it also includes the best use of Taylor Swift you are ever likely to see in a horror movie.

Tagged: children , musician , survival , teacher , undead , zombies

Dr. Vincent M. Gaine is a film and television researcher. His first book, Existentialism and Social Engagement in the Films of Michael Mann was published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2011. His work on film and media has been published in Cinema Journal and The Journal of Technology , Theology and Religion , as well as edited collections including The 21st Century Superhero and The Directory of World Cinema .

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Film Review: Little Monsters Gets a Few More Laughs Outta the Rotting Zombie Genre

Lupita Nyong'o continues her new reign over horror in this hilarious Australian comedy

Directed by

• Abe Forsythe
• Lupita Nyong'o
• Alexander England

Release Year

This review originally ran in March as part of our SXSW 2019 coverage.

The Pitch: Think back to everything you love about Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead . Now, take that style of whiplash comedy and pair it with the living room heart of Ivan Reitman’s Kindergarten Cop . In a sense, that’s Little Monsters , a movie that tosses a bunch of Australian kindergarten kids into a literal petting zoo that’s consumed by the walking dead. The only one to save ’em? An aging rocker in the midst of an existential crisis ( Alexander England ) and a resourceful teacher who has one hell of a clean up job on her hands ( Lupita Nyong’o ).

There’s a New Scream Queen at the Throne: The consensus at this year’s South by Southwest is that Nyong’o is quickly becoming the new Scream Queen to behold. That may be asking a bunch of the Oscar winner, but if she’s game, the path is hers to lose. Between her breakneck performance in Jordan Peele’s Us and this little gem, Nyong’o is wearing a lot of blood this year, but it’s a damn good look on her. She’s calm, calculated, and incredibly relatable, not too dissimilar to Jamie Lee Curtis way, way back in the ’70s.

With Little Monsters , Nyong’o not only jumps to the task at hand, but learns her strengths with every passing shovel and pitchfork. There’s a naturalism to her performance that suggests she can bring some much-needed realism to the quote-unquote Scream Queen model. It’s in the way she lets loose on England, confessing that she’s scared shitless despite putting up the strongest front between the two of them. But she also doesn’t have all the answers, earning her stripes as the zombies close in and her catalogue of ukulele covers runs out.

Little Monsters (Hulu)

At a time when there’s never been more demand for women at the forefront, Nyong’o is a timely and surprising revelation. This flick may be a far cry from her prestigious work of yesteryear, but she’s hip to writer and director Abe Forsythe ’s pacing. Even better, she’s also keyed into the realities of being an actual kindergarten teacher — following the SXSW premiere, she explained how she studied the Australian education system prior to filming — and her sense of immediacy is in every one of her actions. You believe her fear for the kids — and her love.

But her performance goes beyond just the blood and guts. Nyong’o is downright charming, to the point that you wonder how many more genres she can tackle in the years to come. Her comedic timing is on-point and her knack for action is sublime. Seeing her drop everything and race out to find an EpiPen for one of her kids, or slamming a piece of zoo merch into Josh Gad ‘s belly for being a misogynistic prick, is the type of character-building work that explains why so many con kids wear shirts or buttons with Kurt Russell on ’em.

Rest assured, Nyong’o will be on those in the months to come.

Resurrection or Final Rites?  That odor you smell is the decaying corpse of the zombie genre. For the last decade, George A. Romero’s once-underrated subculture of horror has been torn apart in more ways than the asshole cast of Day of the Dead . Forsythe is clearly aware of this, which is why the film doesn’t really concern itself with the walkers. Instead, he uses the medium for what it was always intended for and pries out an original story. This is a cutesy family comedy that wears its heart on its sleeve as opposed to the mouths of its ghouls.

Like Shaun , the film sets that tone from the get-go, kicking things into high gear with a schmaltzy, chummy score that suggests you’re not here to cower, you’re hear to laugh. But what’s surprising is how much you’re also here to sigh and choke up. You see, England’s hilarious rocker uncle also has a nephew ( Diesel La Torraca ), and their bond leads to a series of sentimental moments, all of which Forsythe earns, namely because he drew on his own experiences. This is a script that could only come from a young father, and it’s in every line of dialogue.

Yet this all wouldn’t work if the kids weren’t so goddamn hilarious, too. Like Cop , Forsythe doesn’t just give you a faceless class of kids, which would have certainly been the easier route for him, he drops a yearbook of memorable brats. Surrounding England and Torraca are a gaggle of kids, who all have their share of quirks and eccentricities, which warrants as many recurring jokes as poignant moments. By the end, the payoff is extraordinary, no different than when you reach the finale of any epic zombie movie, and you’ll be championing each and every one of ’em.

Finally, Josh Gad Shit His Pants! As incorrigible children’s TV host Teddy McGiggle, Disney’s go-to actor gets to finally let loose in ways that would nuke the Mouse House. He’s a sex addict. He’s a drunk. He’s a terrifying piece of human excrement. But he’s also hilarious, and while Forsythe could have dialed down the expletives for more maximum effect (it begins to sound a tad too high school), Gad gives it 110%. His bitter rivalry with his fellow puppet co-star Frogzy alone is worth a watch in itself. Besides, what zombie movie has a Gigglemobile? C’mon.

Can We Get That “Shake It Off” Cover? Make it happen, Nyong’o.

The Verdict: Little Monsters oozes with heart and soul, making for an ultra likable, last-minute addition to a genre that should be buried 12-feet under in the near future. As director and writer, Forsythe delivers the goods in all the right areas, finding a way to navigate the crowded medium with a hilarious and quick-witted screenplay that he executes with stylish aplomb. It also helps that everyone’s on the same page — you know, like a good group of kindergarteners — and that extra oomph gives Little Monsters the golden star it so wants to take home to show its parents.

Where’s It Playing? Little Monsters crawls on to Hulu this Friday, October 11th.

Trailer: 

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‘Tarot’ – Meet the Evil Entities Designed by Creature Concept Artist Trevor Henderson [Exclusive]

A deck full of terror awaits in the new Screen Gems horror movie Tarot , which features a variety of new supernatural entities designed by concept artist Trevor Henderson.

Tarot ,  in theaters now, is written and directed by  Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg,  very  loosely  based on a novel by  Nicholas Adams .

The plot sees a group of friends unleashing a curse when they decide to play with a mysterious box of tarot cards. One by one, they  come face to face with  their fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.

Trevor Henderson designed the creature concept art, which was   transformed into the cursed tarot deck by artist  Richard Wells . The supernatural  Tarot entities were then brought to life on screen by special effects and creature effects designer Dan Martin  ( Possessor ,  Infinity Pool ). Bloody Disgusting spoke with Henderson about designing the entities for  Tarot , giving insight into each card-inspired creature.

As directors Cohen & Halberg previously told Bloody Disgusting, Henderson was the only artist they considered for  Tarot . Henderson walks us through what drew him to the film.

“ I couched it as doing a fun slumber party horror movie, like a Thirteen Ghosts  kind of thing, and having the chance to do a whole bevy of different monsters in one film really  excited me a lot ,” he explains. “They came to me with an early draft of the script, so I was able to  read and see the context with which each of the monsters has their own set piece scene and how that would work out. And just having a very vague idea of what role each monster would play and how they would look, move, and perform. I  was left  to my own devices, which was incredibly intimidating.  But it was a lovely , lovely process getting  to develop those characters  up  from the early script into the final versions.”

Tarot Cards in Screen Gems TAROT

Designing  eight separate entities already  makes for a daunting task , but Trevor Henderson took extra care to avoid creating familiar representations from the tarot deck.

Henderson explains the process, “ I  definitely  tried to take the specific things that popped up over and over again in different renditions of tarot cards and bring those into a slightly newer way that people hadn’t seen it before. Then, from a creature design sense, whenever I’m doing creature design, I try to avoid anything like easy touchstones. In the early designs specifically, I avoided sharp teeth. I know that they walk that back a little bit in the final. When you see a monster in a movie, and it’s got that molded angry brow, I try and avoid that kind of stuff altogether. Anna and Spenser were  really  great about that, especially with The Hanged Man, which is my favorite out of all the guys that ended up in the film. They were just like, ‘No, no, it’s perfect.’ I just tried to take the things that popped up over and over again  and try my best to make it something maybe people hadn’t seen so much, which was difficult when you’re doing the Devil and Death. How many times have we seen Death?”

The artist also shares how he collaborated with the SFX team  to further hone  the creature designs and what it was like to see it all come together.

“It’s been just a chain of creatives, people I  really  respect and admire, just working  in close proximity with them,” Henderson tells BD. “ Even  after  the fact,  seeing the  Tarot  art that came after I  was done .  So, first, there were my designs, and then, towards the end of that process, I started working with Dan Martin at  13 Finger FX . We started being on the same Zoom calls just to maximize what would work and what wouldn’t work as I was designing it, so we didn’t have to spend time going back and forth. So, I would  be like , ‘Here’s this guy with a weird face.’ Then Dan would be like, ‘This can work, this cannot work, we can do this with this fake hinge jaw I have from a  Possessor,’  or something.

“But it’s been  really  cool seeing the renditions after the fact in Richard Wells’s very distinctive style.  I think he  did an amazing job giving them  really  great character in those little paintings in the cards. I know people are asking for a full set of that tarot deck, which I think they’d be nuts not to produce at least a little bit, a few copies of.  But yeah, and then  just  even further down the line, seeing they did a  prank trailer  with actors wearing the costumes  that  I scribbled out.  It’s  just been  really  weird  and satisfying to see it transmute into these different forms.”

Trevor Henderson walked us through each entity’s design, so let’s meet the monsters of Tarot . The below images are being exclusively shared here on Bloody Disgusting.

High Priestess

“The crown was  really  the centerpiece of that. [Cohen & Halberg] always wanted  to have just  an ornate magisterial crown and an almost like royalty thing happening with her. Then everything else shifted in. The weird blindfold she has was a very late addition. We went through a ton of different stuff just to see what stuck in a design sense. There was very little in terms of calling back to the  meanings of the cards  just from the design.  I think a  lot of that came through in the script and the writing more than playing back to the actual meanings.

“But for the character designs, I just tried to make  something that would look interesting  and distinctive  and hopefully a little bit iconic on screen.   Especially with the ones  that had  less screen time, you  really  want  to have  something that sticks.  We just tried a million things, and then that was the one that just like, this is cool with the weird black tears and the blindfold.”

“Well, the idea behind the Hermit is he’s supposed to be a hermit in the context that he is a hermit, like the card, the tarot card. But he’s also a hermit, like a mountain man, someone who’s been sequestered away for a long time. So he has all these rags. And then also he’s a hermit, like a hermit crab, and he’s wearing skin – somebody else’s skin.

“So that was the idea, which I thought was fun. Originally, you didn’t see anything underneath this drooping mask, almost like the one Krampus has in the Krampus  film. But they put little hints of a creature underneath in the final, which I enjoyed a lot more. I really liked the scene. His scene and the Magician are my two favorite parts in the movie.”

The Hanged Man

“A lot of the scurrying that he does is after my involvement. Not that I don’t approve of it; I think he’s great. He was the one that actually was the smoothest. I think I did one little page of just really rough sketches and then a couple of days of fine-tuning and rendering a little bit. Then they were like, boom, that’s it, that’s the one.

“That design feels like the most like the things I look for. It feels like maybe the most ‘me’ out of everybody. Just by having what he does in the scene, he had to be more of a CG thing. But I still like how you get that face reveal, which is the important part.”

“In the beginning, he was a much more body horror guy. I think he was always going to have a jester outfit. But in the script, initially, he had just a mouth, just a blank face with a big smiley mouth. So we played with that for a while and then decided to go in some slightly different directions.

“The biggest thing with him was that we locked down his look pretty early because he has these different masks that change expressions. But we went over a lot at the end when he’s supposed to do a big reveal at the end, and we were going over all these different things about what could be under the mask. At one point, it was just a howling void, like a black emptiness that sucked there. Getting the general look was easy, and then it was the fine-tuning the details that were more tricky.”

“Originally, he was more of a skeletal figure. I wanted to really play up this really weird stage magician. That’s actually my favorite scene in the movie. I think it’s so weird and scary. But it also had one of the shortest turnarounds. I think that was just a one or two-day sketch session, and they were like, yeah, this is perfect. Though, I do like that they keep him as this is very underlit, in-the-dark figure. I think it works really well for that one specifically.

“I was just doing different sketches and seeing what stuck. And just this really worn old vaudevillian magician outfit really struck a chord.”

“The brief for him was that he’s supposed to be like the film’s Michael Myers. He’s very slow, methodical, and precise. I really wanted this intimidating figure that had no mouth. He has this sinewy thing going on. Even in the original, I think he has eyes in the final version, but the original was just empty sockets, too. I wanted to just make them very alien.”

“Between Death and The Devil, they get a lot of screen time. The way we worked was that we tackled the ones that had the most screen time in the beginning when we had the most time to play around. Then, as we got to the shorter and shorter scenes, there were fewer and fewer days we could spend fooling around and spitballing. So, we started with Death. Then right after that was The Devil because their scenes are intertwined. We really wanted a juxtaposition between Death and the Devil where Death is a slow, tall, stooping thing that’s stalking you, like an It Follows  monster.

“The Devil is supposed to be this more animalistic, stopping and starting, like flying on a wall, crawling, bestial thing. So, it was important to get that juxtaposition happening. We spent the most time maybe on that one out of all of them. I think it was just a week straight, doing different horns and trying different versions of the horns over and over again. But I think we ended up in a really good place with that one.”

Trevor Henderson did design an eight entity for the film, a mastermind behind the cursed deck. You’ll have to watch Tarot to see it in action. The film is now playing in theaters nationwide.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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