Cooties was directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion and stars Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Alison Pill.
When a struggling horror author substitutes at a local elementary school, a mysterious virus breaks out among the students. The virus turns the children into blood thirsty monsters, trapping all the teachers inside the school.
This film falls under the risky Horror Comedy genre. This genre is very difficult to master, because the film's two sides are very challenging to combine and balance. Cooties counts on the absurd nature of the film to add to the comedy side, but however it still lacked some needed comedy from the actual characters.
The main character in the Cooties was Clint, who is a struggling author writing about a haunted boat while living in his mom's attic. He is played by Elijah Wood, best known for his role as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, and is tons of fun for the audience. He balances witty humor with a general likable nature. However when the story tried to develop the character, it was in a deep way that didn't suit this movie at all.
Rainn Wilson played Wade: the school's gym teacher. Wade was a very unique character and the audience is drawn to his general ridiculousness as a character. Wilson perfectly balances the constant and hilarious bickering with Clint (Wood) and a crazy attitude towards the insane story. He was also the most constant character in the film. There was only one moment when the script tried to develop his character, but it kept true to side the audience had seen from Wade (Wilson) earlier.
Lucy is the stereotypical ever-positive school teacher, and is played by Alison Pill. This character comes across as annoyingly positive, but this seemed to be done deliberately by the director. Of all the characters she has the most prominent arc: She is very positive throughout the entire beginning of the film even once the school is launched into chaos, but about halfway through that all changes. There is a scene when she finally snaps and loses it, but afterwords she is a much more determined and motivated character. The audience can really connect better with her after her transformation, because she isn't being as annoying as before.
The action in this film was surprisingly good considering it falls into the horror genre. Horror films typically over use shaky camera and quick cuts to try and confuse the audience. Their directors have this idea that if the audience is confused and has no idea whats happening, then they'll be scared. Cooties steps away from the use of quick cuts, but instead gives the audience wide shots of the action. This increased the ability of the audience to enjoy the action in this film.
Unfortunately, this film is not as funny as it could have been. It seems to rely too strongly on the craziness of the plot, instead of comedic moments. Although there is some humorous dialogue, there wasn't enough to balance out the horror. A lot of the comedy fell to the side characters. All of these characters were just stereotypes or gags. Their humor mostly came across course and halfhearted. Although most of the side characters were a failed portion of this movie, one side character managed to be one of the funniest parts of this film: Rick the parking guard.
This film mixes crazy with horror and turns out to be a ton of fun for the audience. Over all this movie is fun to watch and enjoy without taking it too seriously. Cooties gets a 7.0/10
When a struggling horror author substitutes at a local elementary school, a mysterious virus breaks out among the students. The virus turns the children into blood thirsty monsters, trapping all the teachers inside the school.
This film falls under the risky Horror Comedy genre. This genre is very difficult to master, because the film's two sides are very challenging to combine and balance. Cooties counts on the absurd nature of the film to add to the comedy side, but however it still lacked some needed comedy from the actual characters.
The main character in the Cooties was Clint, who is a struggling author writing about a haunted boat while living in his mom's attic. He is played by Elijah Wood, best known for his role as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, and is tons of fun for the audience. He balances witty humor with a general likable nature. However when the story tried to develop the character, it was in a deep way that didn't suit this movie at all.
Rainn Wilson played Wade: the school's gym teacher. Wade was a very unique character and the audience is drawn to his general ridiculousness as a character. Wilson perfectly balances the constant and hilarious bickering with Clint (Wood) and a crazy attitude towards the insane story. He was also the most constant character in the film. There was only one moment when the script tried to develop his character, but it kept true to side the audience had seen from Wade (Wilson) earlier.
Lucy is the stereotypical ever-positive school teacher, and is played by Alison Pill. This character comes across as annoyingly positive, but this seemed to be done deliberately by the director. Of all the characters she has the most prominent arc: She is very positive throughout the entire beginning of the film even once the school is launched into chaos, but about halfway through that all changes. There is a scene when she finally snaps and loses it, but afterwords she is a much more determined and motivated character. The audience can really connect better with her after her transformation, because she isn't being as annoying as before.
The action in this film was surprisingly good considering it falls into the horror genre. Horror films typically over use shaky camera and quick cuts to try and confuse the audience. Their directors have this idea that if the audience is confused and has no idea whats happening, then they'll be scared. Cooties steps away from the use of quick cuts, but instead gives the audience wide shots of the action. This increased the ability of the audience to enjoy the action in this film.
Unfortunately, this film is not as funny as it could have been. It seems to rely too strongly on the craziness of the plot, instead of comedic moments. Although there is some humorous dialogue, there wasn't enough to balance out the horror. A lot of the comedy fell to the side characters. All of these characters were just stereotypes or gags. Their humor mostly came across course and halfhearted. Although most of the side characters were a failed portion of this movie, one side character managed to be one of the funniest parts of this film: Rick the parking guard.
This film mixes crazy with horror and turns out to be a ton of fun for the audience. Over all this movie is fun to watch and enjoy without taking it too seriously. Cooties gets a 7.0/10