UHM - Review - Wicked Little Things

This project was announced many years back with Tobe Hooper set to direct. At the time it was called "Zombies" and was described as "Deliverance with zombies". Tobe eventually dropped out and the script went through a major overhaul. Then, out of the blue, the project was apparently done filming and Tobe was replaced by J. S. Cardone (The Forsaken) and the title now goes by Wicked Little Things. This film didn't really interest me when I saw the ads for it as part of After Dark Films Horrorfest lineup. It wasn't until people over the net were raving about how gory and surprisingly good it was that I started to gain interest. By then the horrorfest was finished, so I had to wait for the DVD release like many others. Now having seen the movie, I'm once again glad I didn't dish out the $8 bucks to see it at the theaters, because I would have been sorely disappointed. This movie screams straight-to-DVD or even a Sci-Fi Channel premiere, and offers nothing that hasn’t already been done before.

The story revolves around a widow and her two daughters as they move into the deceased husband's abandoned family home in an old mining town. It's clear from the start that there's something up with the area. They should have left the moment they saw the dried blood on the front door, because before you know it, the daughter's made a new invisible best friend named Mary (ghost anyone?), and the mom's having deadly visions of murderous undead children. Turns out that the dreams aren't just dreams, because the area is indeed haunted by the undead souls of the children that were lost in the nearby mine. The children seek blood and have a hunger for flesh, as apparent when they roam the forest at night seeking for anything with a heartbeat. Luckily the dried blood somehow keeps them from entering the homes, so they're forced to feed on pigs until some horny teens decide to make out in their car.

The story is predictable and boring. The teen daughter makes new "friends" from the local high school, who we all knows only purpose is to be killed later on in the film, and like any other horror movie with a young child, they start talking to someone who's never seen, because they turn out to be dead, yada, yada. We know how this is going to end, and that's the film's biggest problem. When it came down to these zombie kids, they're nothing more than a lot of pale make-up and black contacts. When people quoted the movie as being "gory" they must have not seen many horror films in their lifetime, because this movie definitely isn't gory. Sure it's bloody and we get a couple mining picks through someone's chest, but that's about it.

OVERALL

A family moves into a secluded home and I'm sure you know what happens next, because this movie is nothing but predictable. There's not one ounce of originality in this script. Where the premise fails, the effects and gore surely pick up right? Wrong, the zombie children don't even look good, and there isn't gore. Decent renter if you've got nothing else to look for, but I'd advise just keeping your cash for something at least a little bit original.