Douglas
(Alexander Brickel) is a young trick-or-treater obsessed with the titular video
game where you rack up points by helping Satan kill as many people as possible.
On Halloween, he stumbles upon a masked
killer he mistakes as Satan who lets him tag along while he stalks his victims. The kid also has an icky crush on his hot
sister Jenna (Katheryn Winnick), so he gets Satan to do away with her new
boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham). Eventually, Jenna comes to realize her brother
is in grave danger.
This
was director Jeff (Squirm) Lieberman’s first film in sixteen years. Like most of his movies, Satan’s Little
Helper is uneven as hell. It’s sometimes
clever, sometimes forced, but it’s all mostly entertaining. He gets a lot of mileage out of a thin premise
and delivers one or two memorable sequences. There
are enough little moments along the way to warrant a moderate recommendation from me.
The
game cast certainly helps. Winnick is
great as the hot sister. I especially liked
the scenes where she cozies up to the masked killer thinking it's her
boyfriend. Pulp Fiction’s Amanda Plummer
is equally fine as her quirky mom. Heck,
even the kid isn’t too bad.
At
a hundred minutes, Satan’s Little Helper goes on a good fifteen minutes longer
than it really needed to. By the time
the third act rolls around, it’s already started to recycle some of the gags,
and of course, the characters are so stupid they fall into the same trap twice. It all leads up to a frustrating non-ending,
but when it works, it’s a solid little chiller. All
in all, it’s probably Lieberman’s best film.
AKA: Satanic Halloween. AKA:
Halloween Killer.
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