"When people hear the name they think it's a children's movie, but it's really gory, there's a lot of special effects, and at the premieres I've gone to, people have screamed a lot " Jackson told IBT. The idea of the fictional childhood disease gets a whole new meaning in the new movie " Cooties," where if you have it, you resemble a monster that can be found on " The Walking Dead." Armani Jackson, known for playing the "Bubble Boy" on " Grey's Anatomy," stars in the film as a student trying to avoid getting cooties along with his teachers. The 11-year-old actor spoke to International Business Times about "Cooties" and what people can expect when they see it. Pill is pleasingly brainy as the least angst-ridden of the bunch and co-writer Whannell scores as a teacher who is partly off in his own world.ĬOOTIES has its problems, but for fans of the genre, it’s mostly good bloody fun.Young boys have teased girls for having "cooties" for years. Wood is just about perfect as the demoralized nebbish who rises to the occasion, and Wilson nails the mildly unhinged machismo of his sports-crazed action hero. This tends to be the standard horror/comedy default position (it’s very hard to walk the line, and few in the genre tilt toward horror) and is usually successful enough, but sometimes they throw in a kitchen sink (an Asian cliché and a gay joke so flat it’s hard to believe anybody thought it could fly) that lands with a clunk and temporarily derails momentum. The horror has full-tilt gore and some suspense, though directors Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion weight the tone in favor of laughs. We could easily see them, their interpersonal issues and their struggles with some of the kids (little horrors even before they become actual monsters) keeping on for many seasons. This is as opposed to film comedy – even though viewers know they’re settling in for a 94-minute running time rather than the beginning of something that could play out over years, the start of COOTIES feels like we’re meant to settle in with these characters.
Waller, has the snap and drollery of good TV comedy. The writing by Leigh Whannell ( SAW, INSIDIOUS) & Ian Brennan ( GLEE), from a story they crafted with Josh C.
By the time the grown-ups have any idea of what’s happening, most of the kids have been bitten and turned, making leaving the building (and indeed survival) quite a challenge. Unbeknownst to them all, one little girl has consumed a piece of tainted fast-food chicken which turns her into a rampaging zombie. Clint quickly encounters his old classmate and crush Lucy (Alison Pill), now a teacher here as well, and her P.E.-teaching jock boyfriend Wade (Rainn Wilson), along with the rest of the neurotic, eccentric staff. He starts his first day as a substitute teacher at the local elementary school that he once attended as a pupil. The main complaint here is that once in awhile, the humor inexplicably reverts to something that would have been considered funny perhaps thirty years ago, and now feels so ancient that it bypasses being actually offensive in favor of being simply lame.Ĭlint (Elijah Wood) has returned in defeat to his small hometown of Chicken Fort after an unsuccessful career as a writer in New York City. Then the movie breaks out into killer-child-zombie boogaloo and, for the most part, retains its sharpness. How good is COOTIES? The first twenty-five minutes or so (minus an opening sequence that will validate every vegetarian in the audience and make everyone else question fast-food chicken forever) could easily be mistaken for a quality comedy pilot about elementary school teachers on HBO or Showtime. Release Date: theatrical & VOD, September 18, 2015 Wallerĭirectors: Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion Writers: Leigh Whannell & Ian Brennan, story by Ian Brennan & Leigh Whannell & Josh C. Stars: Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Leigh Whannell, Nasim Pedrad, Jorge Garcia