Little Monsters (2019) Review – Zombie Comedy… with Heart!?

A month ago or so, I wrote a review for a movie called Anna and the Apocalypse, where one of my main complaints about that movie was “the movie is trying to have a heart so much, but it ultimately fails”. The reason I am mentioning this, is Little Monsters is exactly that thing Anna and the Apocalypse was trying to be. It’s charming, funny and with Lupita Nyong’o in the main role, you can’t miss.

Little Monsters is a great mix of a comedy, gore, bit of horror (but don’t expect anything hardcore, so if you want to see a proper horror movie, this ain’t it) and at the end, it was a really pleasant surprise for me to watch.

It was really smart idea to cast Lupita in the main role – because she’s so versatile, you know she can deliver and she sure did. She’s got moments of cuteness, moments of being a bad-ass, but she never loses the touch of realness. For example, even when she’s being a bad-ass, she’s still “human” bad-ass, meaning she struggles, she’s nervous to fight horde of zombies, as fighting a horde of zombies is probably not in her job description, I am guessing. Where any lesser movie would made her to be “the kindergarten teacher, who can flawlessly kick some ass, because she trains martial arts, or is ex-Navy SEAL or something like that”, this one doesn’t and as a result of that, it feels more real. I might also be biased, as I love Lupita in everything, but I honestly believe she will go down in the history as one of the finest actresses of our generation.

Alexander England is also great as the fuck-up, who doesn’t know how to take control over his life, he’s clueless of what to do next. That sounds like a generic character, but he took the role and made it his own, where I wouldn’t be opposed seeing him in more movies. Also he had a good chemistry with Lupita and Diesel La Torraca who played his nephew Felix.

Usually people don’t talk about child actors, as given they are children, they are not the greatest of actors and tend to overact. But in this movie, I don’t think I could single any child out, they all seemed great to me and I’ve never felt like they are not behaving like children would, so that’s a definite plus.

If there was a such thing like a “zombie movie for the entire family to watch together”, Little Monsters would be it. Even though some zombie scenes get pretty graphic, the way Lupita’s character makes the zombie outbreak into a game, where she stays positive for “her” children, is really charming and I almost can see some children not being as horrified as they could be (just to make sure I say this, I don’t recommend children watching this movie, but you never know, today’s kids are tougher than we used to be, so they might…? But no, it’s better for them not to).

What I would recommend, is to go into this movie completely blind, don’t watch any trailers, don’t expect anything “big”, just sit down, make yourself comfortable and prepare yourself for a little movie with a big heart, bunch of kids, who are trying stay alive during a zombie outbreak, and their teacher, one of the most charismatic women on the planet, playing ukulele and singing “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, amongst many other songs. Little Monsters is a great movie that took me by surprise, and that’s not something I take for granted, so my rating might be slightly higher than expected, but I judge each film on their own merits. And I think this is not the last time I’ve seen this one.

That’s all for this one? Did you see it? What did you think about? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke