Little Evil — Blue Fairy Film Blog

As with any sub-par Netflix original film, the general premise sounds spectacular, but the execution is left wanting. I mean, doesn’t this sound cool: “Man marries woman, and his step-child is the spawn of Satan.” It plays on popular horror tropes, lends to great parody, and there’s a lot you can do with it from a story perspective. Horror and comedy are intertwined, based on the fact that both deal in incongruous elements, a fact that Craig relies on heavily in order to explain this ridiculous plot.

I’m not saying the film isn’t funny. It has some truly great one-liners, supporting characters, and set pieces, but when dealing with set tropes, raunchy or borderline mediocre humor will not do. If you’re riffing on masterpieces like Rosemary’s Baby or The Omen, then there better some form of homage. Without call backs to the older films you’re throwing in elements that don’t make sense, and you’re not properly parodying, you’re creating your own substandard comedy.

A huge issue is the mother, played by Evangline Lilly. She comes across as vapid and ridiculously clueless, to the point where it’s truly unbelievable. Having her character not understand her son’s power or behavior makes her culpable in his antics. If she had secretly known, tried to hide this fact, and still married Gary (Scott) it would have made sense, and probably would have lent to a more interesting and funny story. Instead she gets mad at Gary for not spending more time with the spawn of literal evil and blames him for everything. I mean, there’s a scene where she actually gets angry with Gary for getting angry about getting buried alive. If this was a film with any sense, this would have been a watershed moment, and not just another Lucas antic.

While Eli Craig certainly entertained with the parodistTucker and Dale vs. Evil, this felt like a worn carbon copy. Tucker and Dale was also a parody of horror tropes, also dealt with absurdist, and also featured great supporting characters, but it wasn’t lacking in relatability. This film is not as clever, and certainly not as heartfelt, as hard as it tries to shoehorn in a message of familial support and bettering yourself. I saw a glimmer of a better film, and with sufficient funding, Craig could make some great comedies in the future.