It’s a fun flick that does lose steam about half-way through becoming more pedestrian & clichéd. A particular scene where they continue to play outside but with human remains instead is pretty outstanding (jump-rope becomes intestines etc.). The film is a gory number too with plenty of blood & guts thrown about. The film pokes fun at modern life as we see a mother arrive to pick up her child in a gas-guzzling SUV, totally oblivious to the blood-thirsty child that climbs in because she’s on the phone. At times it’s a very funny film with several actors really having fun with the whole teacher/student relationship.
It sounds like a more serious film but its tongue is firmly planted in its undead cheek. Problems arise between Wade & Clint over Lucy with loyalties & friendships tested. It becomes less about surviving & more about getting out of the school. Concerns over Clint’s health are assayed by the knowledge that this particular virus only seems to affect children that haven’t entered puberty yet. However these zombie kids aren’t mindless & waiting becomes less of an option as the power gets cut & they come under constant attack. The plan? To wait until 3pm when the parents show up to collect their little monsters. The group includes Clint (who has been scratched but doesn’t seem to have been infected like the kids), Lucy, Wade & the very funny Doug (Leigh Whannell). It’s not long before some of the teachers are being torn apart by the feral-like children with a hand-full of survivors managing to barricade themselves away. She rips a chunk out of his face before going on a rampage through the school infecting all the other kids. The child who ate the bad nugget suddenly loses it in Clint’s class & attacks her classmate, a problem boy called Patriot. His first day there is one of surprise as he reunites with an old high-school friend Lucy, meets her PE boyfriend, Wade (Rainn Wilson) & quickly learns that the kids at this school are really hard work.Ĭlint isn’t helped by his approach…trying to take a more relaxed ‘I’m your friend’ route while also shilling his horror novel, a work in progress. We then meet Clint (played by Elijah Wood) who is a new substitute teacher filling in at the school. It’s a straightforward start showing how the upcoming infection got going. The opening of Cooties is enough to put you off eating chicken nuggets for life as a young girl at an Elementary school in Fort Chicken, Illinois eats a particularly nasty looking one.