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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: October 25th, 2022.
Director: Jeff Lieberman
Cast: Katheryn Winnick, Amanda Plummer, Alexander Brickel
Year: 2004
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Satan’s Little Helper – Movie Review:
Written and directed by Jeff Leiberman, the man who gave us Just Before Dawn, Squirm and Blue Sunshine, and released in 2002, Satan’s Little Helper opens with some footage of a poorly rendered video game – but stick with it! A few minutes later, we meet a nine-year-old boy named Douglas Whooly (Alexander Brickel) and learn that he’s obsessed with this game, titled “Satan’s Little Helper” where you play the devil’s assistant and help him complete various acts of nastiness. We see him play the game as he’s driven along the Hudson Valley in a very scenic and nicely shot opening.
Douglas lives with his parents, Dean (Wass Stevens) and Merrill (Amanda Plummer). Halloween is fast approaching and Douglas’ sexy sister, Jenna (Katheryn Winnick), has just returned home from college and along for the ride is her new boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham). This doesn’t sit so well with Douglas, who, for better or worse, desperately craves Jenna’s attention.
On October 31st, when Douglas, dressed as Satan’s Little Help from the game, sees a serial killer (Joshua Annex) in a garish devil mask kill and then display his victims like they were Halloween decorations, his obsession with his video game causes him to basically volunteer to help the killer out. He is, however, unaware of how real what he’s seeing actually is. Oblivious to the danger, Douglas brings ‘Satan’ home where his sister, decked out in a rather revealing getup, and mother, dressed up as Carman Miranda, get mixed up and believe him to be Alex in a costume – at least to start with…
Funnier than it is scary, Satan’s Little Helper was clearly made on a modest budget but Lieberman does a nice job of getting every penny of it up on the screen. The movie is very well-paced and the script is quite clever, balancing humor and horror very well and doing a nice job of fleshing out its different characters pretty effectively. The movie also features a pretty solid score from David Horowitz and some legitimately excellent cinematography from Dejan Georgevich, both of which go a long way towards adding some serious production value to the movie.
Performances are also generally pretty strong here. Alexander Brickel is much better than your average child actor and he plays his character as just detached from the real world enough to make it work. There are one or two moments where he isn’t 100% convincing but by and large he is quite strong here. Katheryn Winnick is also really strong here, playing the sister very well and looking great doing so, and, maybe not so surprisingly, Amanda Plummer steals more than a few scenes, especially in the last half hour which we won’t spoil here. It’s also worth pointing out how good Joshua Annex is in a masked, silent role. Without the option of speaking, or using his face, to emote he relies pretty much entirely on body language to get his characters intentions across and it works remarkably well.
Satan’s Little Helper – Blu-ray Review:
Satan’s Little Helper arrives on Region A Blu-ray from Synapse framed at 1.78.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer using up just under 29GBS of space on the 50GB disc. This was shot digitally so there isn’t any grain or print damage to discuss. Detail is generally pretty good and colors look really nice here, especially the reds in the devil costume seen throughout the movie. Shadow detail can be a little muddy in some of the darker scenes, but there are no problems with any noticeable compression artifacts – all in all, this looks quite nice.
The only audio option for the feature is a 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track in the movie’s native English. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. No problems to note here. The audio is clean, clear and properly balanced without even a trace of any hiss or distortion. There’s some nice depth to the score as well.
Extra features kick off with an audio commentary from Director Jeff Lieberman that covers where some of the ideas for the story came from, the shooting locations, casting the movie and working with the different actors on the project, some of the costuming and effects work and quite a bit more.
A five minute archival Behind-the-Scenes Featurette offers viewers a quick look at what it was like on set. More interesting is the thirty-three minute The Devil In The Details: Making Satan’s Little Helper which features new interviews with Lieberman, actor Alexander Brickell, makeup artist Anthony Pepe, cinematographer Dejan Georgevich and the man who made the mask, Jonathan Fuller. This offers some interesting insight into what it was like on set, the effects work, the camerawork and quite a bit more.
Mr. Satan's Neighborhood: A Tour Of The Filming Locations With Director Jeff Lieberman is a twenty-three minute piece that explores the different locations that were used for the production in upstate New York and Connecticut.
Finishing up the extras on the disc are a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options. This release comes packaged with some reversible cover sleeve art.
Satan’s Little Helper - The Final Word:
Satan’s Little Helper is a darkly comedic slice of horror that benefits from some nice cinematography, great locations and solid performances that, when combined with Lieberman’s strong direction, makes for a really entertaining watch. Synapse Films’ Blu-ray release presents the movie in a very nice presentation and with a nice selection of extra features as well. Horror fans looking for a Halloween movie off the beaten path are encouraged to check it out.
Click on the images below, or right click and open in a new window, for full sized Satan’s Little Helper Blu-ray screen caps!
