Cooties

Clint (Elijah Wood) gets a substitute teaching gig in his hometown, a chance to take a break from writing his novel about a dumb boat, make some money, and see Lucy (Alison Pill), a girl he used to have a crush on. During his first class, one of the little girls takes a bite out of the school bully’s face. It turns out she had a bad chicken nugget, and now she has cooties, which spreads through the school like wildfire. This version of cooties is less about tagging others and making them it, and more about ripping your intestines out. Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion direct this old-school horror film with a new zombie twist, and it’s a pretty good time. The cast includes Rainn Wilson as a gym teacher, Nasim Pedrad as the staff snoot, and Jorge Garcia as a mushroom-taking crossing guard. The carnage is fairly well done, and the actors get a chance to be funny. Leigh Whannell, no stranger to horror films having been in the Saw and Insidious movies, is especially funny as a science teacher who performs autopsies and examinations without any real knowledge of how to do so, and without gloves. (Available for rent on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during a limited theatrical run).