I’m a sucker for low budget/indie finds. Most are pretty terrible, less are amazing. There are a select few, like 2004’s Satan’s Little Helper, that are bad but in the best way possible — so much so that I wouldn’t even say they’re bad at all. Rather, they’re these hidden gems in a pool of easily-made horror that bring up feelings of nostalgia and terror all wrapped up in one, ready to be watched and enjoyed.
Enter Dougie, proud slayer of anything good, master of a video game featuring the Devil himself, and soon-to-be key player in the Halloween night destruction of his town, Bell Island. Acutely naive, Dougie unwittingly meets a serial killer dressed as “Satan” and vows to help him in his dastardly deeds, including killing his sister’s boyfriend. As night falls, people end up dead at the hands of the duo and Dougie (along with his family) try to survive in one piece.
It’s immediately apparent with the jerky flash game intro and excited shouting about points that don’t even correspond with the game that this movie isn’t exactly high-dollar. Dougie comes off as the weird kid who acts too young for his age (9) and loves his sister a bit too much (especially for that age). But this works to the movie’s benefit because we wouldn’t have a serial killer situation if he wasn’t. It’s like this throughout the movie too; decisions that come off badly at first are later deemed appropriate for the story.
For example, there are many instances where “Satan” interacts with other characters and is met first with confusion, then anger, and fear. Take Dougie’s sister, Jenna, and stick her in a room with Satan to show off her sexy costume. She goes through so many emotions in such a small time that it feels improbable and badly-written. But we only feel that way because we know it’s not her boyfriend playing a trick on her and that she’s really in danger. Jenna goes from excited to playful to scared to relieved and finally back to (teasingly) playful. And as much as we’d like to think we would know that something strange was going on, we probably wouldn’t. The same with the dead bodies littered all over Bell Island; on Halloween night, would we bat an eye at a bloody corpse on someone’s decorated lawn? No.
One thing I would be remiss to forget is the feeling Satan’s Little Helper has. Long pans through orange tree-lined streets. Quaint community Halloween decorations. Everyone in the holiday spirit. This gives me super 90s nostalgia, almost to the point of a Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode. I feel like a lot of movies forget that Halloween takes place at the end of October, and unfortunately we as the audience don’t pay as much attention to backgrounds as we should. This nails it — it’s not too overdone, it’s realistic for a small island community, and the kids are played by actual kids. There’s heart to this movie, detail that is often missed or overlooked by bigger studios. And it’s always a breath of fresh air to see it in action.
A gripe I do have is the plot, but not in the way you might be thinking. It’s a small issue, but no matter how many times I watch it, I always miss something. Satan is a serial killer dressed as such so he can slip by and murder people without being caught (… and probably because he likes dressing up too, I don’t know). For the longest time, I thought it was an actual demon, not a person. Through the many times I’ve watched, and even now, I don’t recall the part with them explaining about a serial killer gone loose. That, and the amount of people he’s able to trick and kill seems like a mighty big coincidence for a normal person to accomplish. But in the end, it doesn’t really matter because Dougie gets his dream come true, people die, and we all have a good laugh at the antics happening on screen.
Satan’s Little Helper is a surprisingly good movie for what it’s giving you. Pulled apart, the acting, story telling, and sometimes the effects come off as cheap — almost to Jack Frost levels. But together, all these unwanted pieces of meat and spices form a delicious sausage of dark humor and outrageous horror. Satan’s Little Helper is a Halloween classic that gives a much-needed break between bigger-name blockbusters, and even one you can enjoy at the first sign of changing leaves. Look past the glaring flaws and see that this simple story of a boy meeting his idol with terrible consequences is a riot to watch and one you’ll be coming back to year after year.
How did you like Satan’s Little Helper? Leave a comment and let us know!
