Cooties

"Cooties" (2015, Cary Murnion, SpectreVision, Glacier Films, Liongate Premiere) is a zombie kid horror comedy set in an elementary school.

The school is located in an area called F.t. Chicken, Illinois, where a young girl is seen to eat a tainted chicken nugget (which we were lucky enough to see the entire process of in the first scene). This girl then goes on to infect other children in the school.

Clint Hadson (Elijah Wood) is a struggling writer who is subbing as an elementary teacher to pay the  bills. He has the lucky task of dealing with a bunch of badly behaved 4th graders, made only better by the outbreak of the maddening, bloodthirsty disease.

This film is a little weird. All of the teachers are ridiculously quirky and odd and the disease only appears to infect children, meaning that the film unfolds into an entertaining, zombified Children of the Corn scenario. The characters are possibly too caricature-ish to care too much about, but on the whole the film is gross, silly and entertaining. There were also very self-aware jabs at Elijah Wood (who owns SpectreVision, coincidentally) throughout.

Whilst it's a bit of a one-trick pony, "Cooties" delivers some light-hearted, gory fun.

[Image: SpectreVision]

Hani

Maniac (2012)

"Maniac" (2012, Franck Khalfoun, IFC Midnight, La Petite Reine) is a remake of the 1980s slasher of the same name.

Frank (Elijah Wood) is a mentally deranged mannequin restorer. Scarred by his upbringing with his prostitute mother, he suffers terrible desires to kill and targets young women. We see mostly through his eyes in this well shot film. Frank stalks, kills and scalps his victims, taking home their hair to staple to the heads of his chosen mannequins in order to create his own female companions. He soon turns his attentions to Anna (Nora Arnezeder), a beautiful French artist who's looking to use some mannequins for her exhibition, becoming obsessed with her.

A brutal and graphic film with excellent special effects and gore, and a fair amount of tension. As we see mostly all scenes from Frank's perspective, we are privy to his battle with his inner turmoil and his hallucinations. The film is uncomfortable and disturbed, but because we see it from the murderer's perspective, we don't get many surprises.

Wood delivers a horrifyingly real character who we understand, but for whom we feel no pity.

A modern slasher which keeps it simple and brutal with an excellent soundtrack, "Maniac" is one you can't look away from.

[Image: La Petite Reine]

Hani