Zombie comedy is a subgenre that just keeps coming back from the grave – already this year we’ve had Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, and Zombieland 2: Double Tap is heading our way in October (the first trailer landed last week) but now we’ve been treated with a first look at Little Monsters, a zom-com starring Lupita Nyong’o (who apparently has a taste for horror after her extraordinary performance in Jordan Peele’s Us earlier this year).
In Little Monsters she plays a kindergarten teacher looking after her class on a field trip to a farm when the undead attack (slow zombies this time, as the trailer points out).
With her is the fairly useless uncle of one of the children Dave (Alexander England), and a kids’ entertainer played by Josh Gad. The trailer is a mix of gore, gags and kids singing ‘If You’re Happy And You Know It’ so while we can’t say this looks exactly groundbreaking it is at least stylish and fun with a cool cast.
The movie premiered at Sundance which has a good track record for horror (The Babadook, Hereditary and It Follows all launched there) and reviews from the festival were really positive. The movie is currently sitting at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It’s directed by Abe Forsythe whose most recent feature was crime comedy Down Under (2016) which won Best Picture and Best Director in the comedy category at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.
Early write-ups have praised Nyong’o’s comic timing – 2019 looks like another top year for horror.
Check out the trailer below:
Little Monsters opens in UK cinemas on 15 November.
