Cooties - DVD

Movie: Actually Clint (Elijah Wood) dreams of becoming a successful writer. But since that hasn't worked out so far, he has to go back to his hometown of Fort Chicken to work at his old school as a substitute teacher. Amidst a collection of dysfunctional colleagues like gym teacher Wade (Rainn Wilson) and Rebekkah (Nasim Pedrad), who sees a potential rapist in every man, Clint reunites with his former classmate Lucy (Alison Pill), whom he's had a crush on before. Too bad she's involved with the macho Wade, of all people. Strange colleagues and completely disrespectful kids seem to be the biggest problems on Clint's first day at school. But far from it, a virus in the chicken nuggets served at lunch turns the kids into bloodthirsty zombies. And the already overwhelmed teachers now have no choice but to band together and fight the little devils.

With their directorial debut Cooties, filmmakers Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott attempt to wring a few more new sides out of the zombie comedy sub-genre. At the same time, they pay tribute to numerous representatives of the horror or fantasy genres in an endearingly humorous way. In doing so, they use a lot of bizarre ideas, which are sometimes very original. That their film can also be understood as a protest against industrial factory farming is made clear in a rather direct way by the not exactly appetizing opening credits. But as soon as the kids have turned into bloodthirsty monsters by the attempted chicken nuggets, this criticism rather fades into the background and leaves the field to bitter and not always politically correct humor.

What the zombie kids use, for example, to play marbles or skipping rope in the schoolyard, is just so deliciously macabre that fans of horror comedies will have their bright joy. And the allusions to Terminator or the Lord of the Rings movies are also likely to bring an amused smile to many a viewer. The fact that some of the other gags don't quite hit the spot and one of them is unnecessarily raunchy is only a minor negative. What works really well, on the other hand, is the slightly satirical level of the film, which deals with topics such as the excessive administration of drugs to children, fast food in school lunches, the gun laws in the U.S. or the decision of some states to teach creationism in addition to the theory of evolution. It's this rather backhanded humor that makes the more shallow gags forgivable.

Maybe Cooties isn't a genre milestone like, say, Shaun of the Dead. But it's an extremely entertaining first feature that shows a certain passion on the part of the creators and that does everything right in very many moments. And for this there is a very clear: Absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The image of the DVD shows slightly excessive contrast, but otherwise pleases with a coherent color scheme and a good overall sharpness. Only in dark scenes and with faster camera movements can be made out there some small weaknesses. The sound is in a decent Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Although the dialogues are mixed very centrally, the ambient sounds and audible sound effects are nevertheless well accentuated. Overall, there is a decent: Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the disc has an interview with Elijah Wood to offer (about 13:39 min.). Unfortunately, that's about it.

Conclusion: Cooties is a politically incorrect zombie comedy that may have turned out a bit too silly in some scenes, but overall it scores with delightfully macabre humor and some very original ideas. No masterpiece of the modern zombie film, but definitely an entertaining genre contribution with good-humored actors and probably the most macabre children's toys in film history. The DVD is technically well realized, the bonus material on the other hand is quite meager with a short interview. Nevertheless, there is overall a more than satisfied: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp