We can all remember a time when we were kids that catching the cooties was a serious concern. The 2015 film ‘Cooties’ combines that past fear with the new trend of zombie like creatures and they do it well. Directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion made great choice when it came to casting Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Alison Pill (The Newsroom), Jack McBrayer (The Jack and Triumph Show), Leigh Whannell (Insidious) and Nasim Pedrad (Saturday Night Live) as the teachers fighting to survive the horde of blood thirsty students in ‘Cooties’.
‘Cooties’ begins on chicken farm. The chickens are infected with a strange virus, the chickens are being made into chicken nuggets, which are in turn sold to schools. A little girl eats an infected nugget and spreads the virus by first biting a little boy, who is a bit of a jerk. The virus mutates quickly and the boy spreads the virus to the other children by scratching them. Soon it’s a free for all and the teachers are the target of the kid’s aggression and hunger. A band of teachers are soon fighting for their survival against their former students. The teachers have to get creative and work together to survive their psychotic former students.
‘Cooties’ is full of non stop action, blood, gore and a lot of humor. It’s never addressed in the movie if the kids are actually zombies. They retain the ability to think, their motor skills and the ability to work as a team. They more resemble someone infected with a type of rage virus. similar to the virus in 28 Days Later, but a milder version. It worked well for the movie. The gore was balanced out with humor and a lot of one liners.
So, did I enjoy ‘Cooties’ ? Yes I did. It was a refreshing take on the recent trend of outbreak films. Elijah Wood was the perfect fit for his role. In fact, the entire cast were great, but the true stars of ‘Cooties’ were the horde of infected kids. They were fantastic. Lucky for you, ‘Cooties’ is now in theaters and on VOD. Grab a bag of popcorn and watch it tonight.
