The Plot:
Back when child labor laws were non-existent, the dictatorial Old Man Charlton (think C. Montgomery Burns without the warm and fuzzy feeling) required underpaid urchins to run explosive cables into the nooks and crannies of his ore-producing mines. One such pint sized slave was Mary Tully. Unfortunately, her time as a TNT delivery unit was cut short when an accident traps her, and several dozen members of her extended juvenile family, in the bowels of the Earth. They are buried alive and left to die. Fast forward a few decades, and the recently widowed Karen is carting her angst ridden teenage daughter Sarah and grade school offspring Emma up to the old family home in the mountains. Left to her by her late husband, the distraught mother hopes to begin a new life in the remote locale. Of course, she's unaware of the current zombie outbreak. Yep, ever since the bratlings became worm food, their restless spirits have walked the surrounding woods, looking for blood, and a little undead payback in the process. Oh, and did we mention that Karen's last name is TULLY??? And that the great grandson of Old Man Charlton is still around, buying up all the surrounding land to build a ski resort??? Seems the walking corpse wee ones have their work cut out for them – the Wicked Little Things.

The DVD:
Wicked Little Things is a horror film that cheats. It wants to get by on one element and one element only. It doesn't care about characterization or plot logic, has no idea how to stage scares or suspense. Instead, it carries cast and crew up to some incredibly atmospheric woods in the Bulgarian outlands and hopes that mood alone will create all the creepiness it needs. It has to be said that the locale is indeed wonderful – dense and deceptively beautiful. Even better, the production locates a series of broken down buildings which provides an excellent backdrop for all the dread that's about to occur. But thanks to a terrible script by Jace Anderson, Adam Gierasch and Ben Nedivi (the first two being responsible for a collection of mid-level SciFi Channel style crap) and the uninspired direction of J. S. Cardone (himself a basic b-movie journeyman) what was betting on tone alone to freak out fans simply shrivels up and dies. And unlike the title terrors in this narrative, the movie itself fails to rise from the dead and seek its own cinematic revenge. Instead, it becomes an inert little experiment in monotonous ambiance.

Originally entitled Zombies, and at one time tagged with horror film legend Tobe Hooper as the man behind the lens, Wicked Little Things does many standard fright film formulas a major disservice. While it's true that the undead have been an overused and underserved genre dynamic since the invention of DVD, this is one of the worst applications of cannibal corpsing every attempted. Cardone, who must contend with making the small of frame and physically frail appear baneful and badass, decides that the best way to handle this expositional element is to simply avoid it all together. We never learn why these pissed off children are back from the grave, and why they've decided to dress like extras from a Visage video in the process. And let's not even get started over all the flesh feasting. Having wronged kiddies return from the beyond in gray face, wielding pick axes and shovels that they can barely lift, and then snacking on all the grue contained in the average human makes absolutely no horror film sense. We can buy any part of this predicament, but just like movies such as Village of the Damned and The Children have proven, God's little miracles are a hard macabre sell. Even when getting shotgun shells to the solar plexus, these turn of the century tykes are almost impossible to believe as violent killers from the great beyond.

Even worse, this is all Wicked Little Things has going for it – beyond the obvious attempts to exploit the local. Bulgaria looks pretty imposing here, its dark and dreary woods presenting a perfect environment for all manner of spook show fun. But Cardone doesn't understand what to do with his terror treasure trove. Instead of exploiting it to maximum effect, these elements just sit there, taking up valuable running time and adding very little to the monster mix. In fact, this derivative director seems more interested in filling his frame with foggy goodness. Each night scene seems purposefully bathed in artificially generated puffs of smoke (the F/X streams are even visible in the distance during one of the movie's climactic moments). The acting is average, the emotional link between mother and daughters overemphasized to the point where it becomes grating. Even worse, most of the killings occur off screen, a huge pool of fake blood flying up into frame the only indication of the violent vivisection taking place. As stated before, Wicked Little Things is a hapless horror hoax. It promises to be a moody, maniacal trip into a wilderness overloaded with precarious potential. All we end up with are grade school gore goofballs, and not much else.

The Video:
Surprisingly, Wicked Little Things looks very good on this Lionsgate DVD transfer. The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image helps remove the movie from its obvious direct to home video variables. The contrasts between light and dark are handled expertly, and the muted color palette is given a proficient, professional sheen. For a film made up of mostly night scenes, there is an excellent amount of detail and depth offered. Too bad the way this movie looks couldn't translate over into how it plays.

The Audio:
Given both a nicely atmospheric Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel mix as well as a standard 2.0 Stereo track, the aural aspects of Wicked Little Things are equally effective. The dialogue is easily discernible, and the speakers provide a fair amount of background dread during the frequent woodland horror sequences. While the music is a little maddening – it's far too new age-ish for its own good – the overall sonic situation here is very good indeed.

The Extras:
Aside from a commentary featuring Cardone and actress Lori Heuring (she played Karen, the widow), there are no other bonus features on this DVD. Lionsgate will try to convince you that the aggravating trailers for the remaining seven films in the series are part of the added content, but since they appear AUTOMATICALLY at the start of the disc, and are difficult to circumnavigate, they represent more of a marketing than merchandising ploy. As for the alternate narrative, it's an interesting track. We get lots of anecdotes about the location and the extras, with Cardone complimenting his cast for putting up with some unusual filming situations. Overall, it sheds some light onto this otherwise routine production, but provides little impetus to recommend this movie's transfer to the home theater medium.

Final Thoughts:
It is impossible to Recommend Wicked Little Things. Yet a Skip It seems too severe. There will be a chosen cinematic few who find something of value in this slowly-paced supernatural zombie fest, while others with a taste for more mean-spirited undead antics will dismiss it all as dull and uninspired. Therefore, a Rent It remains the only logical choice. It provides the proper way to judging this fright flick's overall effectiveness. If you like it once it's in your home, a trip to the local brick and mortar can then be arranged. If you hate every overhyped 8 Films to Die For 'too scary for the mainstream' moment of it, it only cost you a couple of bucks to find this out. While we may never know how Tobe Hooper would have handled this material (his track record of late doesn't bode well for the former Texas Chain Saw titan) it is clear that it required something more than an exotic location to sell its scares. Sadly, that's the only Wicked thing this little movie can actually provide

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