SATAN’S LITTLE HELPER (2004)
Label: Synapse Films
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 100 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
Cast: Alexander Brickel, Katheryn Winnick, Stephen Graham, Joshua Annex, Amanda Plummer
Director Jeff Lieberman has directed a handful of terrific cult-classics, he helmed the worm-horror Squirm, acid-killer thriller Blue Sunshine, and the backwoods-slasher Just Before Dawn, and the sci-fi comedy Remote Control, in my opinion he's perhaps one of the most culty of the cult filmmakers. In the early 2000's after a 17-year absence from narrative filmmaking, when directed a couple of award-winning documentaries, he returned with the modern-day cult classic, Satan's Little Helper (2004), a Halloween-slasher gem them I think had largely gone underseen and under appreciated by the masses.
In it nine-year-old Douglas 'Dougie' Whooly (Alexander Brickel, Palindromes) is a kid obsessed with the handheld video game that his dad bought him, it's called “Satan’s Little Helper,” in it you run around helping Satan commit violent acts. He's a weird kid with a big-time crush on his teen sister Jenna (Katheryn Winnick, TV’s Vikings), who has just returned home from college, and much to the kid's annoyance she has brought home her theater school boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham).
It's Halloween and Dougie is dressed as Satan's Little Helper from his favorite video game, and while doing some early day time trick or treating he witnesses someone wearing a rubber pull-over devil mask (Joshua Annex) murder one of his neighbors. The naïve kid is a bit detached from reality and believes that this is all Halloween theater and thinks that the killer is the Satan from the video game, so asks if he can be his Helper, to which Satan agrees. Dougie takes the killer home, and through a series of unfortunate events, his sister and mom Merrill (Amanda Plummer, Pulp Fiction) believe the guy in the devil mask is Jenna's boyfriend wearing a costume, and that his refusal to speak, take off the mask, and at times bizarre behavior is just the the actor's style of method acting. What could go wrong?
The film is both creepy and violent but also comes across as playful and delightfully dark humored, as Dougie and the masked-killer go about murdering people with the kid thinking it's all an act. Eventually the kid's family catch on that they're hanging out with a killer, but poor mom, dressed up as Carmen Miranda, ends up wrapped-up in suffocating plastic at the killer's mercy at a costume party where Satan laces the punch bowl with a killer pill-laced concoction.
Shot on the cheap but nicely realized with plenty of Halloween sprit the movie is an annual Halloween favorite of mine, with some solid performances, especially the creepy pantomime turn from Joshua Annex as Satan. The guy doesn't utter a word but used hand gestures and suggestive tilts of his masked head to convey a lot. Winnick as the sister is also quite good, and I think Brickel as the naïve kid detached from reality pulls it off. Of course veteran actor Amanda Plummer is great, giving an at times unhinged performance as Dougie's mom, who seems just as detached from reality as the kid!
A terrifically demented and black-hearted comedy for the Halloween season, horror fans in-the-know have loved this for nearly twenty years but it remains a cult-item and hopefully this new Blu-ray from Synapse puts in on the radar of fans who might have missed-out on this Halloween classic.
Audio/Video: Satan's Little Helper (2004) arrives on Blu-ray from Synapse Films in 1080p HD widescreen (1.78:1) uncut. I couldn't find any verbiage about the source of the scan but it's in good shape, shot on early 2000's digital there's no blemishes to contend with, just a bit of minor ghosting in a few spots. Colors are a tad soft but generally look quite pleasing with some modest fine detail, a few of the darker scenes are slightly murky, but again, for a low-budget indie from 2004 that was shot on early-adopter digital not too shabby, and it blows away the Screen Media DVD from 2005. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles. The track is well-balanced, clean and free of distortion. Dialogue is never hard to discern, and the score sounds quite nice, if never reference quality.
Synapse carry-over the archival extras from the previous DVD release, we get the Audio Commentary from Director Jeff Lieberman, a 5-min Vintage Behind-the-Scenes Featurette, and a 2-min Promotional Trailer. New stuff comes by way of a 33-min The Devil in the Details: Making Satan's Little Helper with Writer-Director Jeff Lieberman, Actor Alexander Brickell, Make-Up FX Creator Anthony Pepe, Cinematographer Dejan Georgevich, and Mask Creator Jonathan Fuller. Also new is the 23-min Mr. Satan's Neighborhood: A Tour of the Filming Locations with Director Jeff Lieberman (and a friend) who highlight the locations used in the film, touring Hastings-on-Hudson, White Plains and Yonkers New York, and Greenwich Connecticut, giving a pretty detailed account of the shooting locations ans how some were redressed and used multiple time, offering location tips to would-be indie filmmakers.
The single-disc release arrives in a black keepcase with a reversible sleeve of artwork featuring the original home video release and a new illustration. I wasn't too fond of the new artwork, it's hard to beat the original home video artwork, so I went with that.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary from Director Jeff Lieberman
- Vintage Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (5 min)
- NEW! The Devil in the Details: Making SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER (33 min)
- NEW! Mr. Satan's Neighborhood: A Tour of the Filming Locations with Director Jeff Lieberman (23 min)
- Promotional Trailer (2 min)
Screenshots from the Synapse Films Blu-ray:
