Grimmfest 2019 Review: Little Monsters – “A well-made, quirky zombie comedy”

Little Monsters is an Australian zombie comedy, directed by Abe Forsythe. It’s about Dave (Alexander England), a slacker musician who’s always going on about his metal band (which you quickly figure out is just him). After a breakup, he’s staying with his sister and her son, Felix, who has life-threatening allergies. Dave takes Felix to school one day, where he meets an attractive schoolteacher (Lupita Nyong’o), Miss Caroline. Miss Caroline plays ukulele versions of Taylor Swift songs to the kids, and Dave is smitten.

They all end up on a school trip to a farm when one of the parents begs off—but then there’s a zombie outbreak. The farm is right next to a US testing facility, and that’s where the zombies have broken out of. To add to the mix, American TV show host Teddy McGiggles (Josh Gad) is filming on the farm at the time.

It’s a very silly, very sweet-natured zombie comedy that you could almost take your grandmother to. All of the leads are fine, with Nyong’o a real stand-out. The director’s son as the same kind of life-threatening allergy issues, which inspired the film and when it premiered at Grimmfest the father/son duo introduced the film in a video. There’s plenty of zombie action, and it’s very funny. There are some fun pop culture references regarding Star Wars and other subjects, and comic scenarios involving the way kids’ show hosts often don’t really like the kids they are entertaining.

It’s a well-made, quirky zombie comedy, and given that the zombie genre feels like it’s at the end of its lifespan, anything that’s unique and interesting is elevated from the pack. Little Monsters delivers a fun, unobjectionable 90 minutes—it’s a film everyone will enjoy. At Grimmfest, it seemed to go down pretty well. Even that dreaded Taylor Swift song works pretty well in it.