WICKED LITTLE THINGS

Karen Tunny is going through a difficult situation since she lost her husband: she has decided to move, along with her two daughters Sarah and Emma, into an old house inherited from her husband and located in a remote village in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Karen does not know, however, that in the past a tragic event upset the inhabitants of the village she is heading to: in 1913, a terrible accident in a mine killed dozens of children who worked as slaves. But the past has decided not to be forgotten: every night, in fact, the children who died years earlier in the mine return to walk among the living seeking revenge. But how can you kill a child? You can't indeed… you can't if the children in question are little living dead like those who parade in this interesting film directed by J.S. Cardone in 2006, but which arrived in our country the following year. “Zombies – The Revenge of the Innocent” (“Wicked Little Things” in the original) is a curious zombie film that decides to analyze the theme of the living dead in a singular way, focusing all attention on an element that is quite “uncomfortable” to address in a film, namely child exploitation, an exploitation that will be framed in this film in an original way, namely as the instigator of “monsters” eager for revenge, who are there to symbolize how childhood innocence will always and in any case prevail. But what makes “Zombies – The Revenge of the Innocent” an interesting film, in addition to the mature reflection mentioned above, is the path it decides to take; it is indeed one of the few films on the zombie theme that refuses to follow the schemes – now almost imposed – introduced by Romero with “Night of the Living Dead”. We therefore do not have putrid and gruesome zombies who walk swaying, nor continuous and abundant gory sequences, nor, much less, the usual “cat and mouse” game between the dead and the living. In “Zombies” all these paths, or rules of the subgenre, are completely abandoned to generate a work that is at times more innovative and therefore more memorable. Although it is a film dedicated to the living dead, the atmosphere that is created seems almost more akin to the subgenre of “ghost stories” (particularly those that have come to us in recent years from Spain) given that Cardone tends to privilege the atmospheres over the “effects” aimed at impressing, and seems interested in making the best use of the unease emanating from the locations, dense forests perpetually overwhelmed by banks of fog. Although the atmospheres seem to have the upper hand, Cardone does not spare us some small bloody sequences scattered here and there based on pickaxe blows and “inviting” cannibalistic banquets based on human flesh. Great mention deserves, without a doubt, the suggestive portrayal of the small zombie miners who, although little shown, enjoy a simple but appealing look, capable of conferring even a touch of elegance to the entire predicament. The direction of J.S. Cardone (“Desert Vampires”, “8MM 2”) is not very inventive but sober, certainly up to the situation; while the cast, formed by not particularly known actors, turns out to be quite convincing; among them we have a not very inspired Lori Heuring (“8MM 2”, “Mulholland Drive”) in the role of the young mother of the family, the young and good Scout Taylor-Compton (recently seen in the role of Laurie Strode in the remake of “Halloween” directed by the rocker Rob Zombie) in the role of the teenage daughter Sarah and a small, but decisively in part, Chloe Moretz (who curiously had played the same role a few years earlier in the remake of “The Amityville Horror”) cast in the role of the little Emma. In conclusion, “Zombies – The Revenge of the Innocent” is an honest and interesting horror film that, in addition to careful and diligent elaboration, would undoubtedly deserve to be rewarded for the originality of the subject and the courage with which this has been carried out (you don't see films every day with cadaveric children who go around with shovels and pickaxes to feed on human flesh). It certainly deserves one or more viewings. Curiosity: Initially, when the film was just a project, it was none other than Tobe Hopper who was supposed to direct the work (posters immediately began to circulate with the cunning writing “From the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) replaced only subsequently by J.S. Cardone. In Italy, distributors adopted the title “Zombies” which was nothing more than the working title of this film, later replaced by “Wicked Little Things”.