Customer Reviews

Satan's Little Helper

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I rented this solely, and I mean solely, based on the cover and I'm glad I did. This movie was great! I originally thought it was going to be about a killer elf or something, but I was much cooler than that.

Douglas is a dweeby little kid who's obsessed with a video game called "Satan's Little Helper", so on Halloween afternoon when his oh so sexy sister (this girl is smokin' hot!) brings home her new boyfriend from college Douglas gets pissed and goes out looking for Satan and finds him! And brings him home.

I'm not going to give away anymore, but I really enjoyed this movie. It's not a horror movie, so don't expect THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or anything, it's more of a very dark black comedy with lots of violence and killin'.

"Master, can you take me to Hell? Sweet!"

W & D: Jeff Lieberman (SQUIRM, BLUE SUNSHINE)

Jenna - Katheryn Winnick (HELLRAISER: HELLWORLD, WHAT ALICE FOUND)
Merrill Whooly - Amanda Plummer (PULP FICTION, THE PROPHECY)

This movie was nothing like i've experienced before.

It sure has guts and bloods that would definately make you turn around, expecially when in one scene, Satan mauls out a poor pussy cat & writes BLOOD on the wall with it's own flesh.

It starts off with young Douglas playing with his video game entitled "SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER", while his mum and him are travelling through a small community town.

Once he spots Satan murdering the neighbourhood while trick or treating, 9 year old Dougie starts investigating every move until he catches him. The two then bond as friends and embark on a mission to kill to earn points from his game.
But Satan doesn't speak so he's a bit like another Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers mass murderer out for the kill.

Believe me, this horror will keep you on the edge of your seat from the start to finish.

The ending has a bit of a twist too. Or shall i say, is there really a ending???????

Don't be misled by the DVD cover design. This isn't one of those "horrid" horror films, it is a bright, funny, charming and finely made horror film with all the classical horror story attributes of fun and art. It is colourful and atmospheric and unusually for these days all the characters are sympathetic, while the killer loses none of his ogre value in being funny. I've only seen this once, but I am certain this is a fine film that must become a Halloween classic. It excels in Halloween imagery. Like other good horror films it has a satirical theme underlying it, in this case that of the wrong type of video games drawing children into violence and personal disaster. Wholesome in every sense I think, hence the five stars.

"Satan's Little Helper" is rather different than other films within the horror genre which focus around Halloween killing sprees and serial killers. Rather than the same old, tried and true method of a masked serial killer parading around town on an endless killing spree, "Satan's Little Helper" takes an alternative spin on the subject. Utilizing a child and his gullible mind, the film sets up a story that places another entertainment form as a scapegoat for violent behavior and immoral actions, video games.

Video games have often been branded as "inappropriate" for small children, especially graphic games which contain high levels of violence, gore, and sexual representation. Well, "Satan's Little Helper" uses this idea, but takes it to the next level. The story focuses around Dougie Whooly and his ever-growing obsession with his newest video game "Satan's Little Helper". In this game, Dougie plays as a character that must assist Satan in capturing souls and sending them back to hell. The game focuses around random killing of innocent bystanders and animals, and Dougie can't get enough of it.

Dougie's obsession has grown to the point where it made him decide to dress up as "Satan's Little Helper" for Halloween and search for Satan in order to do his bidding and send souls to hell for him. Dougie and his mother go to the dock to pick up his sister, Jenna (Katheryn Winnick) whom Dougie has always had an intense crush on to the point of stating that he is going to marry her. Despite the "incest" that this statement may imply, the viewer simply cannot blame the child's innocence once the audience gazes eyes on Jenna, who is in fact a very attractive young woman with amazing looks that anyone would find hot and sexy. Jenna, however, shows up at the dock with her new boyfriend Alex, and Dougie views his sister's new lover as competition for his sister's affection.

Things begin to become tense as Dougie refuses to be around the family now due to his jealousy of Jenna's new boyfriend. In order to combat this tension that is growing, Dougie's mom suggests that Dougie and Alex go trick or treating together, with Dougie dressed up as "Satan's Little Helper" and Alex dressed up as Satan. She hopes that by having Alex and Dougie spend time together that perhaps they will eventually bond. Dougie refuses, however, and his anger grows, leading him to isolation. During his time alone, Dougie watches as a nearby neighbor, dressed as Satan, sets up his Halloween display for his yard which uses props that look very similar to real dead bodies, mostly due to the fact that they are indeed real dead bodies.

After witnessing this, Dougie asks the man if he can be "his helper" and help the man locate souls that he can send back to hell. "Satan" agrees and the two of them begin their night of terror. The rest of the film depicts images of Satan and Dougie brutally murdering innocents, all the while Dougie thinks it's a game and even keeps score of the kills that have been committed. His young mind cannot separate fiction from reality, until a much later time in the film when one kill in particular finally releases Dougie from his naive nature and come to the realization that the murders were real the whole night.

The film is not exactly scary, and the gore content is filtered quite well, meaning that there isn't an excess amount of gore where the viewer feels like the killing is pointless and does not contribute to the overall plot. Growing up on video games, I personally have never had any trouble distinguishing fact from fiction, even after playing Mortal Kombat when I was merely 7 years old, without ever acting violent in anyway and finishing college with a respectable job, so the common belief that everyone who is exposed to violent games tends to have a violent personality in which their minds cannot distinguish the difference between reality and a game is not necessarily true, however, children should still have their exposure to violence and nudity filtered out until the content is deemed age appropriate by the parents.

The film is mostly funny, rather than scary, and scenes such as when "Satan" flips off a local group of teenagers, as well as an employee at the local grocery store, are quite hilarious to view. References to breasts and sexual innuendos are also quite funny, and help take away from the film trying to take itself too seriously. It's good that the film is capable of producing laughs, while at the same time remaining violent and dark. Scenes of grotesque murders are well done and many are quite original. The balance between comedy and violence is done pretty good for a low budget film, and everything seems to work together quite perfectly, making the viewing experience quite enjoyable. "Satan's Little Helper" is an overall good film worth viewing at least once for a few good laughs.

I LOVED this movie. It was so much fun. I thought it was going to be a horror movie but it was more of a black comedy which moved along pretty fast. The direction is excellent and the acting is good for low budget. I actually enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would. I rented it but am going to buy it now.
It's not huge on plot or anything but it's extremely entertaining. 5/5

Now this is Indie Horror done right. SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is smart, original, and extremely dark. A young boy obsessed with his video game Satan's Little Helper enlists himself to help a masked serial killer he mistakes for the horned demon as the two commit atrocious crimes that the naive kid mistakes as being part of the game. Many will have to forgive the often goofy acting from each of the side players, but it is the costumed character of Satan that really sells this flick. With a sinister latex grin and exaggerated physical humor, this speechless villain adds a unique mixture of comedy and terror throughout the night's events. It is presumed that the character beneath the mask is human, however the film does leave enough intrigue as to keep the audience guessing until the end. In a favorite scene, Dougie jumps in the front of a shopping cart as Satan runs down a pregnant woman, a baby carriage, and a blind man while Dougie cheers and tallies the points. The one area where the film could use the most work is in its overly long ending, which could easily have been reeled back 10-15m to become more effective and concise. Director Jeff Lieberman has done a lot with a very little here, and instills the darkest humor possible in what I consider to be an instant Halloween classic. The film will not appeal to all genre fans, but for those of you that share my taste for Indie Horror, it is a refreshing surprise and well worth a view!

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

Forgive me if I get my quotes wrong, but I think it was Rob Zombie that said something to the effect of, "There's more heart in 5 minutes of Plan 9 From Outer Space than there is in all these bigg budget hollywood blockbuster pseudo-horror movies." Or something like that. This isn't Plan 9.....not much is. But Satan's Little Helper's strength is in it's heart. What the film lacks in technical worth, it makes up for in sheer glee. Jeff Lieberman's love for the genre is so evident, that the inane dialogue and the lack of character development is forgiven. I like this movie for the same reason I liked House of 1000 Corpses. It's made by someone who you can tell is having the time of his life, doing what he wants to do. So, in the typical, overblown excuse for effects that is hollywood, sense, no, this is not a good movie. But in terms of a horror fan making movies for horror fans, Satan's Little Helper is heads and tails over a piece of garbage such as VanHelsing. And for the record, I really think some parts of this film are creepy. The first part of the film takes place on Halloween day, and I've always thought that things that happen during the day are a lot scarier and more subversive than things that happen in the dark. Anyone can make the dark scary.....

OCTOBER!! The month where evil comes out of hiding and can roam freely. No other time of the year can you look natural walking down the street drenched in blood and carrying a butcher's knife. The bad guy in this story has constructed a sinister Halloween display--mainly because most of his decor used to be breathing. Cops see him dragging dead bodies across the yard and just wave as they drive by.

Let me back up a sec. There's a young kid possessed (not actually possessed) with his devil video game. He squeals in youthful delight as he racks up lots of points slaughtering people and casting them off into eternal damnation.

When the boy sees his neighbor dressed up in the Satan suit, he instantly becomes fascinated. He playfully asks if he can be his helper as they send people to hell. And so the murder spree begins. Ahh yes, good bloody fun.

This is a decent setup. It demonstrates the magnitude some bad influences can have on a child. I almost peed my pants during one scene--the devilish duo sprint through a parking lot, using a loaded shopping cart as a battering ram. Imagine the kid pointing and squealing:
OLD LADY!!! {BAMMM}
haha 25 points!
BABY IN A STROLLER!!! {SMACK}
yeah 50 points!
BLIND MAN!!! {PA-POW}
wahoo bonus points!

That was funny as hell!!!!!

This movie rolls downhill fast after this little romp. Some really moronic, predictable, unbelievable stuff to accompany the bad acting. But yeah, you probably knew it was coming.

Watch this if you're bored....

A real Halloween Classic, actually takes place on Halloween, set in New England lots of foliage, fall themes and colors. Excellent story, complete with all the necessaries of a blood and guts hacker slasher, hot older sister, humor, nameless faceless killer. It's truly a Halloween must see.

Satan's Little Helper (Jeff Liberman, 2004)

Straight up, no apologies, I love Jeff Lieberman. In 1976, he made his second feature, Squirm, and carved himself a niche in horror history. Said place was carved in stone when the movie showed up on Mystery Science Theater 3000, granting it the kind of immortality few films can dream of. That everyone thinks it sucks doesn't matter. Eventually, they'll realize they're wrong, and that it's a masterpiece of silliness. Lieberman has made very few films since, but when he does, I sit up and take notice. As of this writing, his most recent is 2004's Satan's Little Helper, and no surprise, it's a barrel of monkeys.

Douglas Whooly (Alexander Brickel, who also appeared in Todd Solondz' Palindromes that year) is a pre-teen who's obsessed with a videogame called Satan's Little Helper. (Think of it as a computerized version of the old driving game where you get x number of points for running over old ladies, blind people, animals, etc.) In fact, he's dressing up as the title character for Halloween, and the only things he's interested in on the big night are his costume and going trick-or-treating with his beloved sister, Jenna (Katheryn Winnick, currently playing David Boreanaz' love interest on Bones), who's coming home from college. Douglas gets a nasty shock, though, when Jenna brings home Alex (Whigmaleerie's Stephen Graham), another student, whom she's recently started dating. While Jenna's mother Merrill (Amanda Plummer, radiant as always) goes into matchmaker overdrive, Douglas takes to the streets, hoping to find Satan and get him to kill Alex. At the same time, there's a serial killer in an awesome mask roaming the neighborhood...

This is classic Lieberman, a mix of black comedy and solid horror that never makes any apologies, nor offers any explanations for the behavior of its characters. Lieberman is willing to take shades of incest and suburban serial killers as normal, he seems to be saying, why shouldn't we? Hey, I'm down with that. Lieberman uses simple techniques and plot devices to build tension; simple is effective here. (Douglas, for example, is totally down with his pal "Satan" killing off pretty much everyone in town except for mom and sis, but as soon as "Satan" meets sis, you know he wants to carve her up big time...) Lieberman doesn't do all that much out of the ordinary, and a number of the twists are pretty predictable given the conventions of the genre, but if you're looking for a solid, dependable horror flick, it's tough to go wrong with Jeff Lieberman. *** ½