Cooties (2015)

Directed by Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion. Starring Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Leigh Whannell, Jack McBrayer, Nasim Pedrad, Jorge Garcia, Ian Brennan, Peter Kwong, Cooper Roth. [R]

When an elementary student ingests a tainted chicken nugget, she turns feral and ravenous, attacking another kid in her class who gets infected with the same madness and hunger; before long, the entire school is overrun with beastly, murderous children, and only a handful of faculty members seeking refuge in the faculty lounge can save the day (if that). Cheerfully over-the-top horror-comedy has lots of laughs and gore, but the scenario isn’t as fresh as it oughta be (barricaded survivors fending off a zombie-like menace has been old hat for years), and there’s too little variety to the one-joke premise, which explains why it starts out far more enjoyable than it wraps up, running low on gas around the halfway mark, with only the occasional oddball gag or one-liner providing a kickstart. Pepijn Caudron (a.k.a., “Kreng”) provides the Danny Elfman-esque music. Written by co-stars Brennan and Whannell, which might explain why the latter gets a lot of the weirdest (and funniest) lines. Wood co-produced, and Hayden Christensen(!) co-executive produced. Debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

58/100