Little Evil seemed like the perfect parody on The Omen where our main character Gary (played by Adam Scott) suspects that his stepson Lucas might be The Antichrist. The brilliance would be in the fact that this of course is not true but these stepfathers feel this way. Since for some reason their stepsons aren't very accepting of them and rather want them gone or worse. Just think of the hilarious events and jokes you could tell in relation to this topic.
Unfortunately Little Evil only scratches the surface and doesn't dig deep into the issue as it sticks to the obvious jokes and apparently chooses sides with the child and the mother. Whenever Lucas is caught doing something bad they never truly blame him or hold him or his mother responsible for his actions. Somehow Gary the new stepfather is at fault at all times. I know that this is done for comedy sake but come on with a little more realism the satire could have been sharper and wittier. I would have liked to see where mother Samantha (Evangeline Lilly) would have taken responsibility for being to accommodating to her son or Lucas act out on her as well. Or that she at least acknowledged that Lucas was also being difficult. The comedy especially in the middle part falls flat. And that would have been fine if it had taken the back seat for the horror elements. But to be honest that is where this film really disappoints since apart from the few effective scenes you probably have seen in the trailer there weren't any. Even Stewie from Family Guy was a whole lot more evil than Lucas.
It was at this point I almost stopped caring until in the final act an event happened that made me like and appreciate the film again. It was so good that it redeemed itself a bit. Although I have to say that I did expect more from the director of Tucker and Dale vs Evil. Speaking of which Tyler Labine also has a small role and it was easily one of the funniest moments in the film and makes me wonder why his role wasn't bigger. I would have loved to hear the discussions between him and Adam Scott's character about cinema and more. But I read that Labine stars in a show called Deadbeat which he himself refers to as Reaper 2.0. And in case you never heard of this show it was brilliant. So I will be watching that show very soon.
Overall I had higher expectations but despite it's flaws I ended up liking it. It's one of those movies that is perfect to watch on those rainy Sundays. So it does seem a good fit for Netflix.
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