User Reviews

Writer-director Jeff Lieberman made a trio of low budget horror films more than twenty years ago that have gone on to become cult favorites. He returns to the genre, quite successfully with SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER, an ode to the occasion of Halloween and the kinds of films that flooded cinemas after HALLOWEEN debuted in 1978. What makes this film different is Lieberman has approached the material with a ghoulishly funny sense of humor. Think of this as the "B" side to BAD SANTA - another seasonal black comedy that was as shocking as it was funny for totally abandoning any & all notions of being politically correct. Lieberman does the same here: he's an equal opportunity offender who casts his satirical gaze over a pretty wide range of subjects.

Like BAD SANTA the film pivots around a little boy who is a long way from being the sharpest tool in the shed; for certain he has trouble separating fact from fantasy. Dad's got him hooked on a computer game called "Satan's Little Helper", and for Halloween he wants to be just that. He hopes if he's good enough Satan will actually show up. While strolling the neighborhood in his little devil costume he spies a hulking black-clad man with a goat-horned Satan mask arranging corpses on the front lawns of houses in broad daylight. Convinced he's Satan he happily introduces himself to the silent marauder and offers to be his helper, provided he tags along home to kill his sister's new boyfriend. The boy is having a great time as this Satan terrorizes and kills assorted townspeople, convinced it's all phony. The boy's family is equally confused, believing this to be the sister's boyfriend playing an elaborate charade. By time they know the truth all proverbial hell has broken loose in the small town.

SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is the kind of movie destined to be a cult favorite, as Lieberman knows how to construct scenes that are both unnerving and horrific, and within a few breaths is pushing buttons that elicit the kind of laughs where you say "I can't believe he just did that!". This is a low budget film, and certain aspects of the script seem either careless or not fully realized. The character of the boy is one of the most annoying child characters I've seen in a film - you can't help but want to reach out and smack him. The suggestion is at a certain age a child's rich fantasy life makes the fact / fiction separation a precarious task, yet the kid (like in BAD SANTA) just seems so dense he becomes a distraction. What manages to save that from becoming a detriment is just how successful Lieberman realizes his Satan Man character, a killer worthy of joining the likes of Jason, Michael, Freddy, & Leatherface in the horror hall of fame. Performance wise the strongest work comes from Katheryn Winnick as the sister, Joshua Annex as the Satan Man (without ever speaking his entire performance is a gleefully dark pantomime, and he really puts himself into the part), and Amanda Plummer's goofy variation on the Mother role.

There are many more pluses than minuses here. I'm happy to see Jeff Lieberman back, and with such a twisted little film. It's bound to make you look more closely at those gruesome Halloween front-lawn displays in your neighborhood.

Longtime favorite quirky horror cult movie director Jeff Lieberman, the swell fellow who blessed us with such enjoyably idiosyncratic terror treats as "Squirm," "Blue Sunshine," "Just Before Dawn," and "Remote Control," makes a triumphant belated return to fabulously freaky form with this wickedly funny and entertaining horror black comedy hoot. Bratty ten-year-old Douglas Whooly (excellently played to obnoxious perfection by Alexander Brickel) unwittingly befriends a diabolically clever murderous maniac (an exceptionally expressive mute pantomime portrayal by Joshua Annex) who's dressed up as the Devil. Video game addict Douglas thinks the dangerous lunatic is just like Lucifer from his favorite game, so he decides to become Satan's Little Helper and assist the madman as he terrorizes a suburban community on Halloween.

Lieberman has a wonderfully warped ball with the deliciously dark and depraved premise, using the nifty plot to take stinging satiric potshots at such relevant topics as religion, exceedingly violent video games, and how said video games can cause kids who avidly play them to become indifferent to the severity of real-life violence and brutality. The acting is uniformly up to par, with especially praiseworthy work by Amanda Plummer as Douglas' wacky mom and the ravishingly gorgeous blonde hottie supreme Katheryn Winnick as Douglas' sassy'n'sexy older sister. Better still, Lieberman further enhances the picture with his patented funky oddball (and weirdly amusing) touches: There's a strikingly abundant amount of incestuous lesbian innuendo to be found in the relationship between Plummer and Winnick (Plummer at one point gleefully smacks Winnick on the butt!), the Satan man kills a cat and writes "Boo" on a wall with the slain kitty's blood, Douglas and the Satan man merrily mow down people in a grocery store parking lot with a shopping cart (said hapless individuals include a pregnant lady and an old blind dude), the Satan man later on in the movie disguises himself as Jesus (which enables Winnick to say the following fantastic line: "Jesus is Satan"), and one guy at a costume party is dressed up as the wormface character from "Squirm." Dejan Georgevich's slick cinematography and David Horowitz's spare, yet effectively spooky score are both solid and impressive. Joyfully sick, twisted and of course quite amoral, this baby overall delivers a handy helping of delectably deranged tongue-in-cheek fun for aficionados of deviant fright film cinema.

Dougie is obsessed with a video game in which he plays Satan's helper. So when he meets a serial killer in a Satan mask, well, why shouldn't he believe that he can really help the Lord of the Flies in this world? After all, his sister Jenna picked her new boyfriend Alex over him for Halloween. Also: Amanda Plummer is his mom, so you may understand why he's a little strange.

Jeff Lieberman is perhaps better known for Squirm, Blue Sunshine and Just Before Dawn. Yet this is a really fun movie that more people should be watching, a silly -- but never dumb -- dark film that somehow has Bob Dylan and Joe Walsh on the soundtrack despite a low budget. The ideas and situations are directly opposite of how original this is. And Satan's mask? Perfect.

This is a low budget film that was getting positive buzz on various American horror movie websites prior to it's release. Having finally gotten around to seeing it, I was throughly impressed. It's a wonderful mixture of slasher movie, satire, and black comedy.

The plot revolves around a typical nine year old kid called Dougie, who's become obsessed with a computer game called 'Satan's Little Helper', in which you gain points by helping the Devil do awful things to people. Now it's Halloween, and when Dougie - in a homemade Satan's Little Helper costume - stumbles across a hulking psychopath dressed as a demon, he's delighted when the non-talking killer lets him assist in his murder spree, since he doesn't realise that the deaths aren't 'pretend'.

The film has 'future cult favourite' written all over it, and is the first film since the original Halloween (1978) to really take advantage of it's All Hallow's Eve setting: it's the one night of the year when men lurking about in costumes and masks don't cause alarm or even suspicion. This is best shown when Dougie first encounters the killer, who is happily dumping the dead bodies of houseowners on their front lawns in broad daylight, as people walk past in the misbelief that the corpses are just Halloween props.

Although it reminded me of several other movies, Satan's Little Helper is - in it's own quiet way - a true original. Amongst the film's many highlights are; Dougie's mother (playing by quirky character actress Amanda Plummer, always welcome) suffering attempted murder by clingfilm; the hero's heroine (the seriously gorgeous Katheryn Winnick, a Christina Applegate lookalike) spending almost the entire movie in a medieval serving wench's costume; a sequence in which two characters race to the rescue while dressed as a furry green troll and a giant canary; and a moment where a girl's habit of biting her nails almost has dire consequences for someone else. Then there's an astounding subplot (very brave, considering the current religious/political climate in America) where the killer ditches his devil disguise and appears as a different religious icon. I'll say no more...

Of course, no film is perfect, and some of the directing and editing is extremely clumsy in some scenes. The killer's behaviour mostly ranges from genuinely un-nerving to gruesomely funny, but sometimes he becomes a little overly clownish. Also, Dougie is just too naive, considering his age: when I was nine years old, I could tell the difference between what was real and pretend, and I certainly knew that you didn't marry your own sister (!). Most of the plot-twists are wholly predictable, and having reached an entirely satisfying conclusion, the movie promptly continues for a further fifteen minutes. But these are minor quibbles. Provided the same level of quality and originality was maintained, Satan's Little Helper is one of the few recent horror films that I'd love to see a sequel to.

Lieberman's newest film is a doozy..a macabre black comedy about a disturbed kid named Dougie(Alexander Brickel)who loves this game his dad bought him called "Satan's Little Helper." He's so overwhelmed by the game that he finds a psychopath donning a Satan costume and asks to assist him in his duties(Dougie spots this crazy man propping up a kill as if the corpse was Halloween ornamentation). What Dougie doesn't know is that this guy really is killing people at random and that this isn't a game. Dougie is jealous of his sister Jenna's(Katheryn Winnick, who is a major hottie)new boyfriend Alex(Stephen Graham)so he asks his master to kill him. What Dougie also doesn't know is that he has invited danger to his family as he brings the killer home making introductions to his sister and mom, Merrill(Amanda Plummer..I wondered how Lieberman could get a quality actress for such a type of silly genre film). The killer underneath the Satan costume outsmarts every character in this film and as he journeys through town no one is safe. From an old lady using a walking stick to a pregnant woman, if you are in the killer's trajectory..look out(even a blind man and baby in a carriage being pushed by it's mother aren't safe)! Operating tongue firmly in cheek, director Lieberman squeezes every drop of comedy from this twisted premise. Despite some disturbing elements as the killer attacks without remorse, Lieberman keeps the film pretty cheesy so that we, the viewer, won't take it too seriously. It looks cheap, but there's a surprising amount of suspense towards the end as Jenna must try and save those she loves as this psycho sets his sights aimed directly towards them.

The man behind Satan's mask . I don't know, he starts like weird, well it's the half part of the movie, he easily kills the people inside that neighborhood . He stayed calm and funny, trying to get the right timing on the family of his helper . Kathryn Winnick is a gold in this film.

Satan's Little Helper is a surprisingly excellent little low budget halloween slasher film.

I was skeptical at first, but it's creative and funny despite the limitations. The biggest highlight is when they're running around in the car park with the shopping trolley, hehe. Also the first time he comes into the house, with the alluring sister thinking it's her boyfriend. Making the kid not realise it's real is a bit stupid though, it's not like they're participants. It's better while you assume he's just deranged. Jenna also shouldn't fall for the same trick twice at the end either. Perks included.