WICKED LITTLE THINGS-United States-2006

Lori Heuring as Karen

Scout Taylor-Compton as Sarah

Chloë Grace Moretz as Emma

Directed by J.S. Cardone

Story by Boaz Davidson

Screenplay by Ben Nedivi

A better title for Wicked Little Things would have been “The Minor Miners Who Become Minor Miner Zombies and Terrorize the Woods at Night.” Lori Heuring is Karen Tunney. After the (off-screen) death of her husband, she moves with her daughters Sarah (Scout Taylor-Compton, Halloween) and Emma (Chloë Moretz, Let Me In) into the old family house left to her from his will.

Of course, the house is located in an old mining town and therefore creepiness comes with the territory. Wicked Little Things is filled with token creepy characters. There’s the local store owner who makes it a point to tell Karen that he doesn’t make deliveries to their house in an ominous voice. If you blink you’ll miss Geoffrey Lewis (The Devil’s Rejects) as the grouchy handy man who fixes the pipes at the new old homestead. There’s also Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire, Star Trek) as Mr. Hanks, the token old weird guy who paints people’s doors with blood and offers hogs as sacrifice to the children.

Ah, the children. It seems that in 1913 these children were used in the mines to get to the places the adults were too big to get into. In the prologue there is a mining disaster and the children are killed. Cut to modern times and they spend their days in the mines and their nights in search of human flesh.

“…in search of human flesh.” Therein lies the problem. Watching Wicked Little Things I got the feeling that the writers had no idea what they wanted these monstrous munchkins to be in the first place. Despite its clichés the film does have its moments. The acting is above average and the directing shows promise. It’s fun seeing Scout Taylor-Compton and Chloë Grace Moretz in earlier roles. I enjoyed all these things about the film. But the writing, not so much.

TRIVIA

Tobe Hooper was initially attached to direct the film.

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