Cooties (film)

Cooties
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jonathan Milott Cary Murnion
Produced by	Tove Christensen Georgy Malkov Daniel Noah Steven Schneider Josh C. Waller Elijah Wood Seth William Meier
Screenplay by	Leigh Whannell Ian Brennan
Starring	Elijah Wood Alison Pill Rainn Wilson Jack McBrayer Jorge Garcia
Music by	Kreng
Cinematography	Lyle Vincent
Edited by	Brett W. Bachman
Production company	SpectreVision Glacier Films
Distributed by	Lionsgate Premiere
Release dates	January 18, 2014 (2014-01-18) (Sundance Film Festival) September 18, 2015 (2015-09-18) (United States)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$348,091[1]

Cooties is a 2014 American independent horror comedy film directed by Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott, written by Ian Brennan and Leigh Whannell. The film stars Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson, Jack McBrayer and Jorge Garcia.

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2014^[2] before being released on September 18, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand by Lionsgate Premiere.^[3]

Plot

In the township of Ft. Chicken, Illinois, a fourth grade student at Ft. Chicken Elementary, Shelly Linker (Sunny May Allison), consumes a tainted mutant black-dotted chicken nugget. Elsewhere, wannabe horror writer Clint Hadson (Elijah Wood) substitutes at Ft. Chicken Elementary, where he reunites with his former high school crush, Lucy McCormick, (Alison Pill), but discovers she is dating Wade Johnson (Rainn Wilson), the PE teacher.

During class, Shelly, who had been experiencing numerous symptoms, brutally attacks her classmate, Patriot (Cooper Roth) after he tugs on one of her pigtails only to have it torn out of her scalp. She bites his cheek, infecting him with the virus; she also claws Clint, but he appears to show no symptoms. Though she tries to escape the school ground before she fully turns, Shelly turns feral and passes the virus to Dink (Miles Elliot), another bully, who spreads the virus throughout the playground by scraching the rest of the children, resulting in the other children becoming infected and attacking the school staff; Mr. Pederson, Miss Nash, Mrs. Gordon, Nurse Rhonda, Vice Principal Simms and Mr. Henderson are all killed by the children. The few surviving staff members, consisting of Clint, Lucy, Wade, Tracy Lacey (Jack McBrayer), Rebbekah Halverson (Nasim Pedrad), Doug (Leigh Whannell), and Mrs. Birk (Tammie Baird), hide in the faculty lounge but are attacked by Patriot who tackles Mrs. Birk into a cupboard and mauls her to death (Tracy, apparently unaware of her real name, screams "Who is that lady?!" when this happens).

After escaping with an uninfected student named Calvin, whom they find in the library studying for a test, the staff barricade themselves in the music room, but are discovered by Shelly. A police officer (Matt Jones) arrives at the scene to calm down the children, not realizing that they are beyond help, but has two fingers bitten off and is then mauled by Shelly as she escapes the playground and hides in his car. Wade notices Clint has been infected by Shelly and quarantines him and they see that Clint is severely vomiting , but Doug deduces that the virus doesn't affect him like it does the children. The staff decide to wait until the parents arrive to pick up the children, but this plan fails when Racer Dopkins, son of the local PTA president, infects his baby brother and the zombified baby attacks and kills his oblivious mother. They manage to rescue another child, Tamra (Morgan Lily) by pulling on Tracey on the leg to escape the zombified kids, but discover she has also been infected.

The staff are attacked by the children again, and Wade kills Dink by beating him to death with a fire extinguisher. Doug analyzes his brain, which has turned black and rotten due to decomposition, and realizes that the virus is only dangerous to the prepubescent (not going through puberty), which is why Clint and Tamra didn't turn feral as they had passed that stage. The staff and uninfected children unite with the janitor Mr. Hitachi (Peter Kwong), but Calvin passes out due to diabetic shock. The group opts to send Clint through the ventilation system to gather a chocolate bar for Calvin, Wade's truck keys, and their cellphones. Lucy joins Clint and the two confess their feelings to each other while trapped in the library. Wade also apologizes for his behavior over a walky-talky. Though they discover the cellphones to have been destroyed by Patriot, they manage to secure a chocolate bar and revive Calvin. The group then reunites after Clint knocks out several children with drugs and, utilizing various tools in the school as weapons, battles the children on the playground and manages to escape. However, Mr. Hitachi and Wade are seemingly killed by the children.

After killing a stowaway Patriot by crushing him against a tree, the group arrive in the nearby town of Danville, only to discover it has been similarly overrun by the infected children. The group realizes that the infection has spread across the United States, with schools burning to the ground and reports of violence and destruction caused by children, and they are attacked by a horde of infected children. They barricade themselves inside a funhouse and manage to retrieve a chicken nugget contaminated with the virus, which Doug will use to possibly make a vaccination for the virus, but discover that the infected children, including Shelly, are inside the funhouse. However, Wade and Mr. Hitachi arrive and rescue the group, setting the infected children on fire with gasoline. They then escape in crossing guard Rick's (Jorge Garcia) van, driving out of the town to "someplace kids don't wanna go". They are briefly pursued by a flaming Shelly, but she falls down and burns to death.

In the post-credits scene, the janitor is shown sitting down, wielding a machete and finishes the frog and caterpillar story.

Alternate Ending

After killing Patriot, they realize they are out of gas. They venture on foot and eventually find a deserted campsite. They enjoy themselves. Clint throws his novel in the fire and tells Lucy that he is not a writer and says he is actually a teacher, living in Fort Chicken. Clint has a strong feeling of dread and tells the others to join him. They find the leader's dead body, and the other infected children find them. Then you see infected Boy Scouts, led by Shelly, looking even worse than ever; her eyes are hollow black with more blisters. It's unknown what happened to everyone after the encounter.

Carnival music begins playing as three managers from an amusement park, a theater and a family fun center, respectively, get the chicken nugget boxes out of a truck carrying them. Because this ending was never shown, it is possible that the nuggets were also infected with the virus and is responsible for the outbreak.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Elijah Wood’s production company SpectreVision and Tove Christensen's company Glacier Films. Executive Producers include Leigh Whannell, Seth William Meier and Ian C. Brennan.^[4]

Filming

The filming began on July 15, 2013 in Los Angeles, California.^[5] Elijah Wood and Glacier Films produced the film.^[6] In September 2014, it was announced that they had filmed a new ending for the film which was paid for by Lionsgate.^[7] The new ending debuted at the Stanley Film Festival.^[8]

Soundtrack

The film was scored by Kreng, and was released on September 18, 2015, by Milan Records, in digital download and physical CD formats.^[9]

Marketing

On April 30, 2015, two teaser posters for the film were released.^[10] On May 20, 2015, the official trailer was released.^[11]

Release and reception

The film premiered on January 18, 2014 at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival where it was selected to be featured in the "Park City at Midnight" program.^[12] The original planned release date in the United States was October 10, 2014. The film had its premiere opening night at the Stanley Film Festival on April 30, 2015.^[13] The film went onto screen at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 17, 2015.^[14] The film had its Los Angeles premiere on September 3, 2015, at SpectreFest.^[15] It has also been selected to screen at the Sitges Film Festival on October 10, 2015.^[16]

Box office

The film was released in the US on September 18, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand by Lionsgate Premiere.^[3] It debuted in 29 screens, where it placed 61st with $33,031. It saw a sharp 77% drop in its second weekend with a weekend gross of $7,545 from 20 screens, bringing its cumulative total to $55,749.

The film also opened in Russia the same weekend, where it came in seventh place with a weekend total of $113,995 from 695 screens (but with a low $164 per screen average).

The film opened in Malaysia on September 23. It debuted in eight place with a gross of $5,381 from 40 screens. The following day saw the movie released in both Malaysia ($22,321 from 40 screens), Thailand ($57,024 from 62 screens), and Ukraine ($6,109 from 44 screens)

As of September 30, 2015, the movie has a domestic gross of $55,749 and an international gross of $204,793 for a worldwide gross of $260,542.^[17]

Critical reception

Cooties received mixed reviews from film critics. It holds a 45% "Rotten" rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The critical consensus reads: "A horror-comedy without enough of either, Cooties is fatally content to skate by on its intriguingly oddball premise."^[18] On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 49 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[19]

Although the film received mixed reviews, Kyle Burton of Indiewire.com gave the film a B+ and said "Gore can only go so far in the service of humor. Fortunately, the team behind Cooties—which includes Saw creator Leigh Whannell" and Glee creator Ian Brennan—manage to pit comedy and horror together in a satisfying package. With mainstay comedy faces, Cootie could reach a larger audience than other similar cultish work. It's the best play on the recent zombie craze, and while not as well-timed as Zombieland, it has the potential to match that movie's success with a wide enough release."^[20]

Peter Debruge of Variety.com gave the film a mixed review and said "Circle, circle, dot, dot. A schoolyard full of anklebiters develops a genuine taste for flesh in Cooties, an irreverent, off-color zom-com that seizes on the scourge of playgrounds everywhere when a spontaneous outbreak of brain-rotting, cannibalism-inducing germs erupts within a small-town elementary school. Told from the teachers’ p.o.v., this tongue-in-cheek midnight movie feels wrong in so many ways, asking a handful of irresponsible adults to bash and bludgeon their way through foaming packs of infected kids in order to save themselves. Acquired by Lionsgate at Sundance, the franchise-ready offering should benefit enormously from one of the distrib’s clever marketing campaigns."^[21]

Home media

The film was released direct-to-video in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2015.^[22] and in Germany on October 15, 2015.^[23]

References

External links

• Cooties at the Internet Movie Database
• Cooties at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cooties at the ComingSoon.net