Jeff Lieberman's long-awaited comeback has become a pitch-black and sadistic horror comedy in which chuckles definitely get the upper hand. I've always been a great fan of Lieberman's work and I consider him an essential director for the cult-genre, even though he only made two really notable films ("Squirm", the only creature feature revolving on killer worms and "Blue Sunshine", a splendid psychedelic drug-movie). Hopefully, this "Satan's Little Helper" will become his third cult classic within a few years! This is an outrageous satire, hilarious in case you have a morbid sense of humor but practically unendurable in case you exclusively swear by intelligently plotted films. During his rather long absence (he only made a couple of unnoticed TV-movies during the nineties), Lieberman apparently did a lot of observing, as his new screenplay is a spoof on many modern society issues such as video games, the spoiled youth, religion etc
The story centers on a spoiled little brat who wastes most of his time by playing an immoral and violent video game called Satan's Little Helper. When he encounters a man dressed like Satan on Halloween's day, he thinks it's an act and he nearly begs this guy to assist him on his murder spree. Without realizing the seriousness of his crimes, young Douglas laughs at many violent massacres and he even introduces this personification of evil to his family. The plot sounds like a bunch of absurd nonsense and actually, it is but it's FUNNY nonsense! The comical effect is reached by the stupidity of the characters and especially by the portrayal of Satan! He doesn't speak but the mask he's wearing is great and his spontaneous reactions are hilarious. The "gags" in this film are pretty unethical (a cat is smashed against a wall, pregnant women & blind men are ran over by carts, intestines are being knotted
) and I'm sure many people won't even grant this film the littlest smile. Too bad for them, because "Satan's Little Helper" is unique in its own peculiar way and certainly worth checking out for people with no morals. There's some nice acting to admire, too! Amanda Plummer (her face alone scares me) is good as the eccentric mother and the gorgeous Katheryn Winnick shines as the sexy sister. I hope to see a lot more work from this young and obviously talented actress! The only disadvantage of this film is that it's slightly too long and the end sequences could easily have been cut from the final product. Nonetheless, a very cool film!
Review of Satan's Little Helper
