(CCR Original Content) Cooties Review [Spoiler Free Review & Spoiler Review Below Picture] (7/10)
Cooties is a 2014 horror/comedy movie directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion with screenplay written by Ian Brennan and Leigh Whannell. Producers of the film included Daniel Noah, Josh C. Waller, Elijah Wood, Tove Christensen, Georgy Malkov and Steven Shneider. The movie was produced by SpectreVision and Glacier Films and distributed by Lionsgate Premiere. The film stars actors Elijah Wood, Rain Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Leigh Whannell, Nasim Pedrad, Ian Brennan and Jorge Garcia.
Clint Hadson (Elijah Wood), an aspiriing horror writer, substitutes at Fort Chicken Elementary reuniting with his former high school crush Lucy McCormick (Alison Pill). While he learns that she is dating the P.E. teacher Wade Johnson (Rain Wilson), a batch of poorly-prepared chicken nuggets containing a mutant virus is eaten by a student. That student attacks a boy in Clint's class and another on the playground spreading it quickly around the school. The survivors most band together to make it through the worst Monday in their school's history.
This movie was pretty good and to me better than what its rated on most of the review sites. I enjoyed it pretty much from begging to end, although towards the very end it did become overly cliché and had a bit too many lame jokes. But for the most part I liked the comedy in it. Elijah Wood played a believable substitute teacher dealing with a normal day at a school he's never worked at and having to deal with teachers he's never met. Alison Pill was quite likeable as Lucy and Rain Wilson surprised me with his performance as Wade Johnson. He was both despicable and likeable. A couple of the supporting characters didn't really do much for me and the plot was a little predictable with common themes from the zombie film genre, but the children being zombies was a new thing. Even though they were children the movie didn't shy away from showing violence or blood and gore, which for some viewers might have been a put off but for me I think they did it in a way that it should be for it being a rated R movie. I think Jorge Garcia's character was way underutilized but he did add some good comic relief. All in all this movie had everything I look for in a zombie movie though it was a little predictable and too over the top in some scenes. I give it a 7/10.
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I thought this movie was very underrated by the critic community. I really enjoyed it and felt it had exactly what I look for in a zombie movie. The premise fits well with it's genre because in real life this would be terrible and frightening. Kids being zombies, yikes. But since it's a comedy it was easy for them to set up some pretty funny scenes of them having to fight off kids that are trying to eat them. Critics saying it not being funny enough are hard for me to agree with because it had plenty of laughs for me, although some of them fell flat or were kind of lame. And that it was too ugly and violent for younger viewers, well hello, it's rated R. I do have to say that away from the premise the story or plot wasn't all too creative but it plays out well over the 94 minute film. Some critics also commented about "uninspired plot mechanics" which to me was more about some of it being predictable or cliché with zombie tropes common to the genre but I thought they fit into the plot in a good way that kept the direction of the movie going. One thing that I did agree with was that the ending was disappointing or unsatisfactory but I've learned that in zombie movies that's something you have to expect sometimes. There's not going to always be a happy ending or any kind of ending sometimes but there was a funny after credits scene where the janitor is shown for a couple of seconds. I give this movie a 7/10.