Schlock Corridor: Day Thirty-One

SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER

 

"While trick-or-treating on Halloween, a young boy unwittingly helps a serial killer who's dressed as a character from the kid's favorite video game."

 

I cheated. On this, the final day of my 31 Days Of Schlock endurance test, I decided to give myself a little break and watch a movie that holds a very special place in my heart: Director Jeff Lieberman's Satan's Little Helper. Why did I break my own rules? Because it's Halloween, dammit! Rules be damned, I wanted to revisit this movie, and 2014 is Satan's Little Helper's tenth anniversary, so what better time than now?

The movie tells the tale of little Dougie, a young lad who is positively obsessed with a video game called Satan's Little Helper, a title where the object is to help Ol' Scratch cause as much mayhem as possible while avoiding vengeful Angels. He's decided he wants to be Satan's henchman this Halloween, even wearing a special costume his doting mother made just for him.
 

Dougie's collegian sister Jenna comes home to her isolated island community to take her little brother trick-or-treating, a family tradition she refuses to break, but she also brings her new boyfriend Alex along, which upsets Dougie to no end. He wants everything to be just the same as it's always been, and this stranger is selfishly ruining everything by simply showing up, despite the fact that he's actually a decent guy who just wants to make a good impression on his girlfriend's family. 

Luckily, Dougie stumbles upon a very oddly dressed dude in a killer devil mask setting up a startlingly realistic graveyard scene in his (?) front yard, and the boy is instantly smitten. He approaches the sinister stranger and asks if he can be the guy's little helper for Halloween, and the masked figure eagerly accepts his new companion, so the gruesome twosome set off for a night of blood-soaked shenanigans, and heaven help anybody who gets in their way.
 

Satan's Little Helper is a lot of fun, and most of that fun is due to the fucked up but oddly endearing relationship between Dougie and "Satan". The little boy and his psycho pal spend the middle stretch of the film on a tour of destruction, running over pregnant women with shopping carts, stealing candy, lynching crippled old ladies, and poisoning trick-or-treaters long into the night. 

Dougie thinks it's all a series of gags, not believing anybody is really getting hurt, and "Satan" is having a ball hanging out with his pint-sized pal. There's a strong rapport between these two characters, and you get the feeling that "Satan" really likes hanging out with Dougie, really enjoying having a playmate on this night of mayhem and murder.
 

He knocks off the usurper Alex because Dougie asks nicely, he holds the boy's hand whenever they cross the street, and he even pushes his little helper around everywhere in a stolen shopping cart, so his legs don't get tired. He has multiple opportunities to just kill Dougie, but he always keeps him alive, even when killing the boy would make things easier for the costumed psychopath. Their relationship is actually kind of sweet in an insane way, at least until "Satan" guts Dougie's father right in front of the entire family (at the boy's urging, thinking it's all a game) then the jig is up. 

After that sequence, the film takes a somewhat more conventional approach to the third act, with "Satan" continuing his rampage sans Dougie, but the character's off-kilter behavior keeps the narrative interesting. One thing is perfectly clear: "Satan" loves what he does. He poses for gruesome photos with costumed children, he brazenly feels up nearly every woman he comes across, and he lovingly poses his victims in public, creating macabre little scenes for people to discover. This guy is having a blast.
 

He even takes getting arrested by the cops in stride, using his incarceration as an opportunity to wipe out the entire island's police force in one fell swoop, even burning down the police station just to add insult to injury. This act transforms the isolated community into an anarchic playground, creating chaos and giving every little prankster in town ample opportunity to wreak havoc without consequence. 

Credit must be given to actor Joshua Annex for really throwing himself into the character of "Satan", hopping from playful to deadly at a moment's notice, often multiple times in the same scene. That his performance is entirely physical, never speaking a word and always acting behind a full mask, communicating through exaggerated pantomime, speaks volumes as to Annex's talent. Without the right actor behind the creepy latex mask, the entire film would have fallen apart, and Annex's performance is so relaxed, perfectly capturing the story's blackly comic tone, that it elevates the whole endeavor. He makes it look easy, which is a high compliment. 

I love Satan's Little Helper. It's goofy, it's kitschy, and it almost perfectly captures that ideal Halloween spirit, delicately balancing on that very fine line between fun and fright. The movie's tone is delightfully macabre, providing plenty of unsettling moments hand in hand with some absolutely hilarious set pieces. It's Halloween the way it should be: disturbing and amusing in equal measure.
 

There are a lot of folks out there calling the recent Trick 'r' Treat the perfect Halloween movie. I disagree. Satan's Little Helper fits the bill perfectly, as far as I'm concerned. Criminally underrated and under seen, it's out there waiting for you to discover it, to fall in love with the touching story of a boy and his masked psycho killer friend. 

This being Halloween, it's now time for me to introduce a brand-new installment of our long-running seasonal podcast, The Horror Show! The autumn leaves are rustling underfoot. There's a crisp chill on the breeze. Ghouls and goblins are stalking the streets panhandling for delicious confections. And a sinister podcast is waiting to be unleashed upon the wicked and innocent alike. In this terrifying new audio-only delight, I am joined by my pals Ky & Titus as we discuss our favorite horror films, the enduring icons of fright cinema, and weigh the pros and cons of the Hatchet franchise in the fifth chapter of our Halloween fright-fest, entitled Brotherhood Of Blood.

It's probably the single most frightening thing you will ever hear in your pathetic life. Enjoy it, but first allow me to re-introduce the first four installments of this annual tradition:

The Horror Show



The Horror Show, Part 2: Samhain Forever!!!



The Horror Show, Part 3: Re-Animated!!!



The Horror Show, Part 4: No Exit



The Horror Show, Part 5: Brotherhood Of Blood

 

This marks the official end of the month-long 31 Days Of Schlock celebration here at The Book Of Lies. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have despised it. Now that I am finished, I am going to spend the rest of my Halloween night watching good horror movies, and maybe drinking copious amounts of bourbon. I think I've earned that much. Until next time, boils and ghouls...

YOUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT!