Satan's Little Helper (2004)

(out of 5)

Satan's Little Helper (2004)
Directed by:  Jeff Lieberman
Starring:  Alexander Brickel, Amanda Plummer, Katheryn Winnick, Stephen Graham, Joshua Annex
Format:  Personal Collection NTSC Region 1
Tagline:  "You'll laugh till you die!"

     I love Halloween films!  Good or bad I usually watch them every Halloween or at least most of them there are a lot these days.  One of my very fist every year is Satan's Little Helper for a few good reasons. 
     First good reason is director Jeff Lieberman who has brought us such awesome films as Blue Sunshine, Just Before Dawn, and Squirm all three of which are among the greatest films in horror.  I mean all three of those movies scared me when I first watched them for the first time and for me anyway the films still hold up with tension when I watch them today.  That all being said Satan's Little Helper is a mild step down.  It's not terrible, not by any means.  I get a good thrill out of this film every year.  And I love the mask.
     Second reason to love this movie is Amanda Plummer an actress whom I adore and she just does so well with every part she is ever given.  My favorite being Tales From the Crypt:  "Lover Come Hack To Me" from the old HBO series.  In this movie she plays the gentle but high strung  Merill the mother of Jenna Whooley (Winnick) and Dougie Whooley (Brickel) the main two characters in our story.  I must add that the little boy Alexander Brickel does very well in this movie his acting was as natural as any child actor I've seen.  Very much enjoyed that since I'm not usually a fan of child actors or child characters.

     Third reason to love this movie is the sense of the unknown.  Not done that much anymore but I at least found it to be a guessing game as to what was going to happen next and to this day we still don't know who "Satan" is.  I found that whole aspect of the film unique.  Everything is so straight forward in the American film industry these days.  We need more Frank Henenlotters and Stuart Gordons.  Well look at Jeepers Creepers everyone was so angry that the creature wasn't explained so 2 comes out...no thanks I like it better sometimes when your mind has to wonder. 

     Satan's Little Helper is about Dougie really who loves video games, especially a game called, "Satan's Little Helper" but what he loves most is his sister Jenna.  Creepy younger brother crush on his older sister turns a little insane when Dougie meets up with, "Satan" himself from the video game and they start going around murdering people.  Well Dougie doesn't, for some reason the poor boy is oblivious to the whole thing.  Dougie is so jealous of his sister's boyfriend he wants Satan to kill him.  Satan kills a hell of a lot of people before Dougie figures out what's going on.  This movie delivers the laughs in a big way which is hard to do.  I usually either find horror comedies great or hate them but that's just me.  This I still laugh with to this day.  One thing I would have changed and the only thing I feel it really lacks is gore.  This movie is one movie that would have benefited from gore.  Maybe Mr. Lieberman ran out of money I'm not sure but some more complicated kills would have been nice.

 Then again maybe he was going for simplicity.  Another reason I enjoyed the film was that there wasn't a bunch of huge fx and what not.  Just would have been nice to see some more blood flying around.  I mean it's basically a slasher film except you never get to find out who the killer is.
I watch it every Halloween.