Little Monsters (2019 film)

Dave is a foul-mouthed, washed-up musician who goes through a rough break up with his girlfriend and is forced to stay with his sister and her son, Felix.

While dropping Felix off at school, Dave meets Miss Caroline, Felix’s kindergarten teacher, and is attracted to her. After a parent drops out from an upcoming field trip to a farm, Dave volunteers to chaperone, mostly to be near Miss Caroline.

On the day of the field trip, Dave is upset to learn that children’s television personality, Teddy McGiggle is filming his show there and that Miss Caroline is engaged to someone else. Meanwhile, zombies break out of a U.S. testing facility and head straight for the farm. During a tractor ride, the class is attacked by zombies and tries to escape only to find the whole farm overrun with zombies.

They try to escape back to the bus, but find it too is overrun with zombies. They try to seek shelter in the gift shop only to find Teddy McGiggle locked in and refusing to let them in. Dave breaks in from the roof, beats up Teddy, and lets Miss Caroline and the kids in. Felix then has an allergic reaction after Dave accidentally feeds him chips with dairy in them. After a botched attempt to give Felix epinephrine, Miss Caroline rushes to get some from Felix’s backpack, which was left in the tractor with the others. She makes it back as Teddy tries to signal a military helicopter. He falls off the roof and is rescued by Dave, to whom Teddy reveals that his real name is Nathan and that he’s an alcoholic sex addict who loves Milfs and hates children.

That night, while Teddy and the children are asleep, Dave and Miss Caroline talk to each other. Dave tells her about how his father left him when he was young and that only his sister was there for him. Miss Caroline reveals that she is not engaged as her fiancé had cheated on her. She wears the ring only to keep single fathers away.

The next day, the military plans to bomb the gift shop and destroy the zombies to prevent an outbreak. The survivors decide to get a large vehicle and drive to safety. Teddy and Dave attempt to get Teddy’s McGiggle mobile, but Teddy betrays him before he is eaten by a zombie in the car. Felix later saves Dave by driving the tractor (he has a fascination with tractors), and they rescue Miss Caroline and the kids. As they drive to safety, they discover that the zombies respond to the music Miss Caroline plays. They eventually reach the military and escape just as the military bombs the farm and kills all the zombies.

Dave and Miss Caroline share a kiss as they and the kids are taken away by men in radiation suits. The survivors are placed in quarantine for 48 hours in case of infection. The final scene shows Dave, Miss Caroline, and the kids singing Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” which Dave previously hated as the kids parents watch on with tears of joy in their eyes.

In October 2017, it was announced Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad had joined the cast of the film, with Abe Forsythe directing from a screenplay he wrote. Keith Calder, Jess Calder, Bruna Papandrea will serve as producers on the film, under their Snoot Entertainment and Made Up Stories banners, respectively. Screen Australia financed and produced the film.[3] The film was shot in locations in New South Wales, Australia.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2019.[4] Shortly after, Neon and Hulu acquired distribution rights to the film.[5] Little Monsters was released in the United States in a limited release on October 8, 2019, followed by digital streaming on Hulu on October 11, 2019.[6] It was released in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2019.[7]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 80% with an average score of 6.81/10, based on 117 reviews, and a 100% audience score.[8] The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by typically outstanding work from Lupita Nyong'o, Little Monsters is a horror/rom-com hybrid that proves the zombie genre still has fresh brains to savor."[9] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 57 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10]

• Official website
• Little Monsters on IMDb
• Little Monsters at Rotten Tomatoes
• Little Monsters at Metacritic