Hulu movie ‘Little Monsters’ mixes horror with comedic fun and a touch of romance

Zombie movie tickles funny bones

Written By Hannah Walden, Co-Features/A&E Editor

If you enjoyed the comedy/zombie thriller “Shaun of the Dead,” Hulu’s “Little Monsters” might hit your funny bone and entertain with the typical zombie action.

“Little Monsters” is a delightfully hilarious and wonderful story of how a horrible situation can change someone’s life for the better. Disguising this zombie movie with humor and personal growth sets it apart from other zombie thrillers.

The story begins with the main character, Dave, and a montage of how he is in a terrible relationship where he and his girlfriend constantly argue in different settings, both in private and in public, and are just terrible for each other. After the opening credits with them arguing, Dave packs up some of his things and leaves to crash at his sister’s house.

Dave, like many young people, has multiple bad habits that he has a hard time containing, especially around his five-year-old nephew, Felix, including swearing and playing violent zombie-killing video games.

We learn that Felix has many food allergies, with a very strict list of foods he can eat, and needs Epi-Pens if he ingests anything he isn’t supposed to. If this isn’t an easy to pick out piece of foreshadowing, I don’t know what is, especially when he is taught how to use an Epi-Pen over and over.

Throughout the movie all of the information that we need to know is easy to understand and doesn’t have any big plot twists. It is a straightforward funny story solely meant to entertain and not build a large and complex world with the lore.

After Dave’s terrible breakup, he tries to distract himself by spending time with Felix and starts taking him to kindergarten. Here, he mets Felix’s teacher, Ms. Caroline, who he immediately starts crushing on as she is a very happy, bubbly and approachable person. From the first moment, the audience sees her interacting with the kids with such kindness. In an attempt to get closer to Ms. Caroline, he agrees to help chaperone the class field trip to Pleasant Valley Farm, which has attractions like mini golf, a petting zoo and hay rides.

It is during the bus ride to the farm when the action starts to pick up, as the audience is cut away from the bus and to a U.S. military testing base, located right down the road from the farm. Inside the testing base, we learn that the U.S. military has been testing all kinds of crazy things on people and animals, including how to weaponize zombies. A “test subject” gets out and the disease spreads, creating more zombies or providing more dead people for the zombies to eat. This new zombie army escapes the base and head for the farm, comically killing and turning some of the farm’s guests over on the mini golf section.

As soon as the bus pulls into the farm and the kids get off, they find out the host of a popular children’s TV show is visiting the farm for an episode of the show. The kids run up and see Mr. Teddy McGiggle outside of the show’s van where he is ready to play the character. Teddy’s sidekick, a little frog puppet named Froggsy, is sticking out of the sunroof of the van to keep up the illusion to the children.

Teddy McGiggle is the equivalent of Steve from “Blue’s Clues,” if he had to wear a green polka-dot suit, talked and laughed in an obnoxious voice, had a terribly annoying dance, had depression and hated his job.

Throughout the movie, on top of keeping the kids safe, it is also very important for Dave and Ms. Caroline to keep up the illusion that all of the zombies attacking the farm is just a game. Somehow these five year olds look past all of the blood and flesh and literal dead people trying to eat them and believe everything that Ms. Caroline says. The kids don’t feel like they are in danger, they truly believe this is an extreme game of tag and they can’t “be it.”

While struggling to keep the kids safe, Dave really grows as a person and as a character. He becomes motivated to keep his nephew and the other kids in his class safe and alive, to help Ms. Caroline keep the kids safe and to be a better, more positive person.

Some of my favorite parts of this movie, other than the comical parts, are the moments when Dave and Ms. Caroline use music to calm the kids down and focus them on “the game.” Especially when Dave played a rendition of “Sweet Caroline” with Ms. Caroline on her ukulele turning a stressful scene into a heartwarming one.

This movie might not provide a scary Halloween vibe to a seasonal movie night, but as a comedy with a little romance in it, “Little Monsters” surely gets the job done.