Horror Movie Review: Wicked Little Things

Whenever you see a horror movie that begins with a scene of a mine you pretty much can guess what's about to happen. Mines have a natural history of horror, human suffering and death. Even today's mines have the same issues since companies running them are often far more concerned with profit than safety, and there is a wrong-headed culture of macho in the mining community that pokes fun at employees who want a safe work place over a workplace the master is happy about running. And understand the most owners of mines don't give a rat's ass for safety. They only want profit. They won't admit it of course, but their actions speak far louder than words. Do a quick google search on mining safety and see what pops up (Massey is one).

So mine = bad. Got it? Good.

Director: J.S. Cardone
Cast: Lori Heuring, Scout Taylor-Compton, Chloe Grace Moretz, Geoffrey Lewis, Ben Cross, Craig Vye,Chris Jamba, Julie Rogers, Martin McDougall, Michael McCoy, Velizar Binev

Carlton Mine, Addytown, Pennsylvania, 1913. This is our opening scene. If you know the history of mines in America you know children were often preferred to work there due to their small size.

One small girl is handpicked to go down deep in the mine to plant dynamite in a new rat-hole style tunnel. She's scared. An adult tells her "just don't think about it." Great advice, eh?

So she crawls inside. All around the earth is making rumbling noises. She panics and hides in a corner after planting the dynamite. Children, being an expendable resource in the early 1900s (not much has changed, really - look around the world), weren't good for much more than exploitation in the sex trade, farms, factories, and in this case being an expendable explosive carrying device. If you think this is cruel, check out what happens to workers in mines around the world even today. It has not changed.

So the foreman waits a good 30 seconds for her to exit the hole then blows it up. (You may want to think of stuff like this when you contemplate purchasing the newest fad electronic cell phone or other toy - check out coltan).

That's the setup. Cut to modern times. A mother and her two daughters are moving into a big old home in Addytown. They've lost the father and are in grief. The daughters are not all that happy about moving out here and the prospect of attending school with a bunch "hicks" doesn't go down well, but the ladies soldier on.

The first night in their new home they have an "incident".

This is the type of scene that could have went either way. But the director and production company (Nu Image is one company involved in this movie according to the IMDb credits, and I've seen what they've done in the past, which put my expectations on LOW when I began this viewing) pull it off. It's cliche, true, but it has a decent creep factor. And creep factor is one thing this movie has going for it at this point, for reasons other than just this scene. One of the factors in good "creep" is restraint, and this is a good example.

The big set up here, aside from the children blown up in a mine, is the fact that we have three females living alone in a rural mountain community (i.e. hillbilly). We got one hot mom, we got one cute teenager, and we got one for Uncle Bill. This is a classic situation set up in hundreds of films. Lack of a male protector is used to hit the viewer in a primitive manner because we all know three women can't possibly protect themselves from a horde of moonshined-up 'billies? Right?

Creep factor.

The ladies settle in. The house has no electricity, no phone, no cell phone tower in the area, no running water. Oh, but it does have a slimey patch of blood on the front door, left by a shadowy visitor. I guess that was Addytowns welcome wagon. "Here's some nice glorch on your door, ma'am!"

Nice place.

In fact the house is a family home on the deceased father's side. Exploring about, mom finds photographs of children, old newspaper clippings (one about a "mine disaster") and other memorabilia you'd expect to find in an ancient home. A visiting handyman (Mr. Thompson) gives her the low-down about how much work the house needs and acts as a source of information to bring Mom and the viewer up to speed on what's been happening in the area - note his mention of being "out of there before dark".

Emily (the youngest) wanders into the forest nearby (freaking out Mom) while teenager drives to the store and meets up with the country boys who seem like typical idiot teenagers. She mentions she lives up "in the house" and one of them blurts "up there with the fucking zombies?"

Yee-ha we got ourselves a movie!

Meanwhile Mom is searching the forest for little Emily, who is wandering about and finds the remains of them mine, now barely more than a deep trench lined with timbers. Out of he darkness comes a rock that lands on the ground before her. This tempts her to enter, with her teddy bear in hand. In the darkness, she begins to speak.

Mom, searching about, comes upon bloody carcasses of animals hanging from the trees, but no Emma. She continues, nervously, and finds Emma in the mouth of the tunnel. She tells Mom she was looking for Mary, who lives "in there" (pointing to the mine entrance).

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Cut to a closeup of an old man praying. He has a tube stuck in his arm. The tube is draining his blood into a jar at his feet. I prefer leeches, myself, but to each his own.

Back to Mom and Emily, in the forest, in the dark. They are of course lost. They hear noises and Mom tells Emily not to be afraid, it's just the wind. Emily says she's not afraid - "it's just Mary and the others". Well the "others" proceed to have their way with an unfortunate elsewhere in the forest who is obviously not a friend of Emily's.

The lost pair happen upon a small cottage in the woods. They knock, then enter. Having grown up in the hinterlands of Michigan (as hillbilly a place as you'll ever find), I know it's not a good idea to walk into someone's cabin in the woods even if no one answers the door. But the girls get lucky (a lot lucker than I did that one time, anyway, but that's a whole 'nuther story) and meet as grizzled old 'billy who directs them to a road that will take them out of the forest most directly. He mentions "the doors" and tells Mom to come back and talk to him during the day. Of course now she knows who put the glorch on the door! "No need to thank me - come back in the daylight and we'll talk."

Well, Mom is creeped out but Emily isn't. She likes him. And she says Mary likes him too. So Mr. Hank is a good 'billy (yes, there are good hillbillies), even if he has some strange predilection for smearing your front door with glorch in the night. Everyone needs a hobby.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The two eventually reach home and over dinner with the teen daughter they talk about "the zombies" and the legend comes to light. Emily makes some great comments. She seems to ask at one point if it's ok for Mary to stop over to play. After Emily is put to bed and the teen daughter is out and about (doing god knows what teen daughters do in hillbilly land), Mom goes to the trove of photographs, intrigued by the comments the teen daughter made. The photos are in the basement, and while there she hears noises in the house. Unbeknownest to her, the zombie children have gathered outside. But one look at (or sniff at) that magnificent glorch patch and they wander off.

Here's a hint to moms: If your daughter ever asks "whats a zombie mom?", do not reply "It's nothing." It just won't work.

Elsewhere in the woods teen daughter (Sarah) is partying down with a couple newfound friends in a car, smoking a J with another girl and her boyfriend. There's some cliche crap here to pad it out, mostly setups for later. We also jump to Mr. Hank who is setting up a pig for a blood ritual. Remember, this is the same guy who was praying with a rosary earlier while draining himself of a quart of blood. The zombie children arrive and it appears the ritual is not quite what Mr. Hank expected. So what's going on? What has disturbed the equilibrium of the normal zombie children behavior in the creepy forest? Or is this behavior normal for zombie kids these days, what with their youtubes and empeethrees and ipods and all that ... Mr. Hank can only wonder since he quickly leaves the scene. You know how zombie kids are these days. You just can't say a word to them.

The plumbing goes out in the morning and Mom has to go into town to get a plumber. There she has a run in with some oaf who is planning to build a ski resort in the area. He comes off as a true ahole (Mr. Carlton). On the ride back home Emily and Mom talk. Emily tells her "Mary said she won't hurt you, but she doesn't know about the others." Mom begins to creep out.

Emma is attracted to the woods. Mom discovers this and finds Mary gave her a doll and told her she wants to come home. Mom runs off into the woods, thinking she heard something. She wanders about and happens upon the remains of the pig at Mr. Carlton's ancestral home (now completely run down). She calls out, no answer, goes inside (WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THIS WOMAN????). Her serial trespassing has the same result, another cliche "snuck up on from behind" scene.

We relearn how much an ahole Mr. Carlton is. He gives here two weeks to vacate her home. Apparently she has no rights to the land. With nowhere else to turn she goes to talk to Mr. Hanks. Mr Hanks reveals a little more of the history of the mining community. Mom is as dull as a stone and doesn't bother to ask Mr. Hanks, the only one who seems to know anything about what is happening, any other questions. That's it. Oh thanks. How's the dead pig business? How much is good glorch going for these days? Nothing.

Nightfall arrives (as it does now and then) and teen daughter is out with friends. Back home, Mom traces through the memorabilia she found earlier and finds a photo of the doll Emma now has, and a picture of Mary.

In the deep dark forest the zombie kids are out and about and doing what they do best, this time on Mr. Carlton's home property - they seem to be drawn there. They find a tasty treat. Then they go walkies and find a car parked in the woods, with Sara and a couple of friends having a make out session. The encounter thins out the troublesome teenager population in Addytown. At least the zombie kids are good for something. Hey, should'a got your car door glorched by Mr Hanks, but no, you just think you know all the answers and he's a crazy old worthless hillbilly. Well the joke's on you!

With all of Sarah's new friends now converted to zombie chow, she manages to drive away. Frightened but essentially unharmed she gets home and freaks out Mom with true tales of zombie antics in the woods, in Addytown, just down the freaking road. Mom seems to buy it and they go to get Emma only to discover she's out and about in the woods. They go to search.

Cut to Mr. Hanks in his cottage, praying. He hears a noise in the woods and knows he must investigate. Zombie kids also hear it and they are nimble little cannibals. They snatch up their tools and go on the hunt. Who will find the girls first? What about Emma?

The small amount of originality peters out around here, which is too bad since they weren't doing such a bad job until now. Maybe something happened. Now we see the usual cliche stuff. A failing flashlight. Running from zombies in the woods. Almost being struck by a car.

With the help of Mr. Carlton (who was in the car, and we rerelearn just how much of an ahole he really is), they escape only to stop a short distance away so they can let the zombie kids have round 2 while Mom and Sarah run off into the woods to get Mr. Hanks (Ben Cross). Mr. Carlton joins them later, bloodied and covered with blood from Rnd 2 back on the road. The zombies want him in the worst way. But they have a reason and it makes sense.

Good Things, Bad Things

The good thing about this movie was the slow and steady creep build up. Another that I enjoyed was the version of zombie they used, which was akin to Asian varieties - the angry ghost wanting to do harm, and the ghost eating its victims. The bad thing, well the incidents of cliche (Failing flashlight? Give me a break.).

This is not a bad movie for zombie fans. It has almost no zombie porn whatsoever (some scenes of zombies eating human bits but it's all the goopy fx stuff), so some may not like it because of that, but it might be a good movie to play during parties with younger zombie fans in attendance. Ghost story fans will probably also enjoy it.