Movie Review: Cooties (2014)

Synopsis: Aspiring novelist Clint takes a substitute teacher job at his hometown elementary school the day after contaminated chicken nuggets were served for lunch. His bad first day turns worse when one of his students bites a classmate and the school quickly becomes infected with a virus that turns the students into flesh-eating zombies.

Who's in it? The movie stars Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer and Cooper Roth.


Review: This has been a movie my wife has wanted to see since watching a trailer for it a couple years ago. Part of this is because she's a teacher's assistant and could relate to some of the things she saw, and the other is we both enjoy a good zombie movie. We finally had a chance to watch it tonight and weren't disappointed.

This is one of those movies that could have been very bad. I say that because the disease only affected kids and that meant, to survive, the heroes would need to kill kids. In an era with school violence, it was one of those things that could have made the film a lot more uncomfortable than entertaining. 

However, despite that, the writers found a way to make it work. I think a big part of it was the way the movie managed to stay relatively light-hearted, with quirky characters and well-timed jokes keeping it from getting too dark. Plus, there was quite a bit of action, thanks in part to the fast-moving virus, which didn't give a whole lot of time to think about it.

I also found I liked the potential love triangle involving Clint (Wood), Lucy (Pill) and her boyfriend, Wade (Wilson). It added a little bit of extra unpredictability that could have affected the main plot in a number of different ways, especially since the two men weren't shy about showing their dislike for each other.

I'm not sure I liked the ending to this movie. It wasn't terrible but left a lot of loose ends, clearly to set up a potential sequel. As far as I can tell that sequel has yet to happen and I don't see any indication it will be happening anytime soon.

Final Opinion: This is a surprisingly entertaining zombie movie. I just wish the ending would have provided a bit more closure.

My Grade: B-

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