COOTIES (2014)

Holiday weekends are either meant for spending time with loved ones, eating good food or fist fighting people over a television for a hundred and fifty bucks. But here at Horror, Sci-fi and More!. We tend to just sit around on our ass' and watch movies or television shows. We love to watch almost anything here from horror flicks to cheesy comedies. We don't care because to us its more entertaining than having to go out and kill ourselves trying to get something or do something we could easily do at home.

Now let me begin by saying that I use to not be a big fan of horror comedies because its a mockery of a film genre that I love. I know that the films themselves don't make things easier by playing out the way they do but sometimes its just plain hilarious to watch someone get killed in a stupid manner.The film in this review comes thanks to Lionsgate as a nice Thanksgiving gift all wrapped up for this festitive holiday. I mean think about who doesn't want to get stuffed eating turkey and then watching zombie-like kids attack and eat a bunch of teachers!!!

Cooties follows the accidental consumption of a nugget that sickens a student because when does a lunch aid ever check the food they are preparing for the children of the world? Never. As this goes on the story detours toward Elijah Wood whose a wannabe horror novelist whose stuck on a story involving a haunted boat. Well he takes a job being a substitute teach at Ft. Chicken Elementary where he bumps into his old crush (Allison Pill) from school but after a brief chat with her, he discovers shes dating the school's gym teacher (Rainn Wilson). As the day progresses the sick student takes a bite out one and then another student causing an epidemic in the school and after witnessing the students kill and eat several teachers outside its become apparent that the few remaining teachers are forced to band together despite their differences and try to survive this ordeal.

Now the film doesn't shy away from the gore and violence of your typical zombie outbreak film. But it does cross that line as what would do if the event involved children? Would you be able to kill someone else's child without blinking and not caring. That's answered in this film as they dispatch of some of the children in hilarious ways but done right with the right special effects. I really liked this film because it crossed that line and made the characters feel little to nothing for the infected students because you have to survive. So in this case the fittest meant that if its already infected or dead you have to make that decision real quickly before you become dinner for something else. The right mix of humor is here as you wonder if one of the teachers who is played by horror film regular Leigh Whannell, if he either slow or just socially awkward and down to Rainn Wilson's portrayal of a gym teacher whose stuck in his past and is jealousy threatened by Elijah Wood's characters affections towards his girlfriend.

So you're asking is this a movie I would want to spend my money on? Well yes, its a decent film and deserves to be seen but if you're skeptical because you're tired of the over-saturated zombie genre than I feel your pain. I've seen a lot of good and bad zombie movies this year and though I wouldn't call this a zombie movie I can see where one would easily toss it into the same boat as your normal zombie flicks. But if you're looking for a comedy film then yeah this will fit that mold for you if you're looking for a laugh or two. Its got both sides of the coin with the horror elements and the comedic element to break-up that feeling that this could just become another run of the mill zombie movie. I liked it and the people I watched it with say the same so you have to ask yourself what are you waiting for?


                        
reviewed by Bucky