Satan’s Little Helper — Satan’s Little Helper(Blu Ray)
Satan’s Little Helper stands as one of the more original Halloween films of the 2000s, and it’s a pretty neat take on the slasher form too, with some very darkly humorous touches. The film regards a geeky and naïve nine-year-old boy, who befriends a serial killer on all-hallows' eve. Here from Synapse Films is a region A locked blu ray release of the film- featuring a new director's commentary tracks, and a few other extras.
Satan’s Little Helper is a 2004 film. It was written and directed by Brooklyn-born Jeff Lieberman. Between the early 70’s and 2000’s he had only five credits to his name- but boy what credits. Going from one of the better when-nature-attacks 70’s film Squirm (1976), creepy psychological thriller regarding acidheads turned murders Blue Sunshine ((1977), and key backwoods slasher Just Before Dawn (1981).
The film opens by introducing us to two of the lead characters- middle-aged mum Merrill Whooly (Amanda Plummer), and her bespeckled nine-year-old son Douglas (Alexander Brickel). The pair are driving to pick up Jenna (Katheryn Winnick) Douglas's at college sister, who’s coming back into town for Halloween to be with her family. Douglas is very excited about his sisters coming back- and he’s already dressed in his trick-or-treat costume- which is of a demon, with a badge saying 'Satan’s little Helper'. His get-up is influenced by his favourite computer game, which finds the player helping the horned one to take of different folks around the neighbourhood.
Merrill and Douglas arrive just in time for the boat coming in- but the boy is rather disappointed, as she’s turned up with her actor boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham). The family head home, and as soon as they get there Douglas heads off in a strop- while walking along through the neighbourhood he comes across a black-suited man(Joshua Annex) with a grey ‘n’ horned devil mask on- the man has just killed someone, drugging the body outside- Douglas thinks it’s all fake, and that this is Satan himself. The pair team up- with the killer carrying on his killings, with the boy still believing it’s all fake. At one point, he takes home the masked killer to his house, and with a miss understanding, both mother and daughter think it’s Alex dressed up.
The film looks decidedly straight DVD fare- with a lot of the killings/ gore looking a little cheap- but don’t let that put you off, as it’s clever scripted and eventful horror thriller come dark comedy. All the small cast is good and well placed- though the pairing of naive Brickel, and creeper silent Annex is the highlight here. Sure, towards the end, the feasibility of the whole thing feels rather stretched- but not enough to spoil the film, and it’s decidedly compelling, at times rather tense and darkly chucklesome film.
The new region A takes in an uncut HD print of the film, and as I’ve already mentioned this has a very straight-to-DVD look- so really this prints as good as you can expect. On the extras side, we get a fairly good selection of things. First off, we get a commentary track from writer/ director Lieberman- and this is a good director's track, with interesting insights and things pointed out. He opens by discussing the mock video game footage that opens the film, and points out the opening location shots. He talks about how it was a little tricky working with actress Plummer- as she would often give very different performances on each take, so it was a matter of trying to capture the just right take. He discusses how some of the film had to have post-production colour adjusted, as some of it was filmed in the summertime. He talks about the film's score, and how at points it pays homage to the original carpenter's score for the first Halloween. He chats about how all the key house scenes were filmed in a real house, and how he feels this gave the film more depth. Later on, he discusses how some of the killer's victims carried out their own stunts. He points out some of the locations they did have permission to film in, and the inspiration behind some of the costumes. He talks about how he used silence/ lack of score in certain places, and themes that connect this/ his other films. Otherwise, we have The Devil and the Details (32,38) this is a new making of- taking in interviews with the director, child actor now grown-up Brickel, and a few other members of the crew. This is a most interesting doc- as we get talk about how the film's story came about, selecting the mask to use, on-set stories, and much more. Next, we have Mister Satan's Neighborhood (22.37) which finds the director visiting to the film's location now. And lastly, on the archive side, we get behind-the-scenes footage (4.58), and a trailer.
Satan’s Little Helper is a great later film from Lieberman- and let us hope this isn’t the last film he makes, as he does have an original and thought-provoking take on genre filmmaking. It most certainly is wonderful to see this new Synapse Films release of the film- and hopeful it will introduce the film to others- as not only is it one of the better films of the 2000s, but it's also an original take on Halloween horror too.