Satan's Little Helper (2004)

A naive young boy unknowingly becomes the pawn of a serial killer.

Director:

Jeff Lieberman

Writer:

Jeff Lieberman

Stars:

Alexander Brickel, Katheryn Winnick, Stephen Graham

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alexander Brickel	...	Douglas Whooly
Katheryn Winnick	...	Jenna Whooly
Stephen Graham	...	Alex
Amanda Plummer	...	Merrill Whooly
Wass Stevens	...	Dean Whooly
Dan Ziskie	...	Vernon
Melisa McGregor	...	Nicole
Joshua Annex	...	Satan Man
Joyce R. Korbin	...	Mrs. Tishbaum (as Joyce Korbin)
Antonio Ardolino	...	Hunter (as Anthony Ardolino)
Mary Kay Adams	...	Fran
Christian Robert Varley	...	He Head
JoAnna Beckson	...	She Head (as Joanna Bechsen)
Larry 'Ratso' Sloman	...	Mayor Flarin
Lisa Barnes	...	Mrs. Flarin

Storyline

During Halloween, theater student Jenna Whooly returns to Bell Island to spend the holiday with her family and her boyfriend Alex Martin, a classmate of hers who was also raised on the island. Her younger brother Douglas "Dougie" Whooly is very attached to Jenna and is fascinated with the video game "Satan's Little Helper," and he becomes jealous with the presence of Alex. He leaves home wearing his costume of Satan's little helper, seeking Satan himself on the streets so he can ask him to kill Alex. Dougie meets a serial killer who, coincidently, is wearing a costume of Satan and decides to help him. He brings the insane murderer home, and Jenna and her mother Merrill Whooly believe that the masked killer is Alex acting like Satan to please Dougie. Later, the boy walks with the maniac along the streets, helping him to terrorize the locals.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | island | halloween | carmen miranda costume | jesus costume | 

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Taglines:

You'll laugh 'til you die.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence/gore, some sexual content and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 May 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Au service de Satan

Filming Locations:

Mount Vernon, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Satan's Little Company LLC, Intrinsic Value Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Near the end, after Doug finds the policeman, he rings the doorbell to his own home - even though he just walked out the door and didn't lock it behind him.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Douglas "Dougie" Whooly: [off-camera] Ten points. Fifty points. Bonus points! A hundred points! Mom, he's ripping his guts out!

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Crazy Credits

This film is dedicated in loving memory to Ernest Pintoff.

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Connections

References Scream (1996)

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Soundtracks

Up Dance/ Let The Bass Kick
Written by Ed Walsh
Performed by Cheeze-E-Edd

User Reviews

Entertaining Straight-To-Video Entry...

Satan'S LITTLE HELPER surprised me. I was expecting ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from this one, and typically avoid these low-budge, straight-to-video American films altogether...but this one was different. There were definitely a few "flaws" as most of these types of films have, but even so, SLH was a fun way to blow 100 minutes...

The story is about a kid obsessed with a video-game entitled (appropriately enough...) Satan'S LITTLE HELPER. The boy's sister comes back home from college on Halloween to go trick-or-treating with the little brat, but he gets jealous when the sister brings the new boyfriend along. The brat runs off to "go find Satan" and stumbles across some wackadoo in a weird mask who is making Halloween decorations out of his recent murder victims. The brat, having an overactive imagination, believes the masked weirdo to be the Lord Of Darkness, and asks if he can tag along and be his "helper". "Satan" agrees and the boy helps assists new-found master on a twisted and hilarious killing spree...

Two main gripes with this one. SLH would definitely have benefited from a lot more gore. There was only one or two scenes that have any gore in them, and some of the inventive kill scenes could have benefited from some more of the red stuff. But my REAL complaint is that the "sister" is so smokin' hot that it is an absolute TRAVESTY that she never gets nekkid in the film. Everyone involved in SLH should suffer a torturous Satanic death for this HUGE injustice. But those two problems aside - SLH is quite enjoyable. Some truly hilarious scenes, and the performance by "Satan" is very noteworthy. Though he never speaks a word, his body language and charisma show through even though he's in full costume. If I ever meet Satan, I hope he's exactly like this guy...

Under the surface, this film also poses some interesting questions about children's ability (or lack thereof...) to differentiate fantasy from reality, and many children's growing obsession with video-games and other modern media. Not that SLH is any sort of "morality tale" - on the contrary, it definitely has the "heart" of a dark-humored horror film - but it does pose a few interesting questions if viewed in a certain light. Overall, I would recommend this one as a fun "knock-back-a-few-drinks-and-check-it-out"-style film. Worth a look - 8/10