Apart from the undoubtedly very comforting sum of money on his bank account, it must really suck being Elijah Wood! Whatever you do or try, you'll always be referred to as that Hobbit from "Lord of the Rings" and typecast as a dork. This isn't intended as an insult or mockery, mind you, as I really like Elijah Wood and appreciate most of the roles he played (except for LotR). Since his recent attempts at mature and serious horror ("Open Windows" and the heavily underrated "Maniac" remake) weren't exactly successful, it perhaps was a good idea for Wood to return to a horror-comedy reminiscent to one of his very first commercial hits. Indeed, "Cooties" reminds you of "The Faculty", except that Wood is now a wimpy (substitute) teacher instead of a wimpy student, and the alien monsters have been replaced with zombie toddlers!
"Cooties" is admittedly a very unoriginal and derivative zombie-virus flick, but at least it's unpretentious and straightforward, without too many underlying messages or metaphors. Taking place in the aptly named community of Fort Chicken in Illinois, the film doesn't waste too much time, neither, as we witness during the fun opening credit sequences how diseased chicken flesh gets processed into nuggets and then consumed by an innocent little girl in the school cafeteria. The next day, aspiring but troubled writer Clint Hadson starts his job as a substitute teacher, but by the first recess time, he and a bunch of crazed colleagues already must run and hide from a horde of unhinged zombie children. Kudos to scriptwriter (and co-star) Leigh Whannell, who proves with "Cooties" that he's also capable of writing light-headed genre films, next to his regular scary and nasty stuff like "Saw", "Insidious" and "The Conjuring". Whannell's role as the socially awkward biology teacher is also one of the funniest, while Rainn Wilson is terrific as the stereotypical gym teacher: a dumb macho, slightly overweight and sporting a ridiculous moustache. Two-thirds of "Cooties" is good entertainment, especially for as long as the teachers are entrenched inside the school while the creepy kids linger around; - using eyeballs as marbles or human intestines as skipping rope. The last 10-15 minutes seem somewhat unstructured and rushed, and the script even makes some irritating rookie-horror mistakes, like the sudden return of characters who were supposed to be dead. If I had watched "Cooties" after a day of bad temper, perhaps I would have been less positive and labeled it as another umpteenth and unnecessary zombie comedy, but today it provided me with a few genuine laughs and a good hour and a half of entertainment.
"Cooties" is admittedly a very unoriginal and derivative zombie-virus flick, but at least it's unpretentious and straightforward, without too many underlying messages or metaphors. Taking place in the aptly named community of Fort Chicken in Illinois, the film doesn't waste too much time, neither, as we witness during the fun opening credit sequences how diseased chicken flesh gets processed into nuggets and then consumed by an innocent little girl in the school cafeteria. The next day, aspiring but troubled writer Clint Hadson starts his job as a substitute teacher, but by the first recess time, he and a bunch of crazed colleagues already must run and hide from a horde of unhinged zombie children. Kudos to scriptwriter (and co-star) Leigh Whannell, who proves with "Cooties" that he's also capable of writing light-headed genre films, next to his regular scary and nasty stuff like "Saw", "Insidious" and "The Conjuring". Whannell's role as the socially awkward biology teacher is also one of the funniest, while Rainn Wilson is terrific as the stereotypical gym teacher: a dumb macho, slightly overweight and sporting a ridiculous moustache. Two-thirds of "Cooties" is good entertainment, especially for as long as the teachers are entrenched inside the school while the creepy kids linger around; - using eyeballs as marbles or human intestines as skipping rope. The last 10-15 minutes seem somewhat unstructured and rushed, and the script even makes some irritating rookie-horror mistakes, like the sudden return of characters who were supposed to be dead. If I had watched "Cooties" after a day of bad temper, perhaps I would have been less positive and labeled it as another umpteenth and unnecessary zombie comedy, but today it provided me with a few genuine laughs and a good hour and a half of entertainment.