Satan's Little Helper (2004)

During Halloween, theater student Jenna Whooly returns to Bell Island to spend the holiday with her family and her boyfriend Alex Martin, a classmate of hers who was also raised on the island. Her younger brother Douglas "Dougie" Whooly is very attached to Jenna and is fascinated with the video game "Satan's Little Helper," and he becomes jealous with the presence of Alex. He leaves home wearing his costume of Satan's little helper, seeking Satan himself on the streets so he can ask him to kill Alex. Dougie meets a serial killer who, coincidently, is wearing a costume of Satan and decides to help him. He brings the insane murderer home, and Jenna and her mother Merrill Whooly believe that the masked killer is Alex acting like Satan to please Dougie. Later, the boy walks with the maniac along the streets, helping him to terrorize the locals.

Jeff Lieberman is a legend. His films SQUIRM, BLUE SUNSHINE, JUST BEFORE DAWN, and REMOTE CONTROL are undeniable cult classics. (REMOTE CONTROL, in particular, is a wonderful oddity, and a kind of sci-fi/camp reaction to the video boom of the 1980s; for VHS lovers such as myself, REMOTE CONTROL is now like a nostalgic dirge for all of those fantastic local video-stores that transmogrified or became extinct after DVDs usurped the role of VHS.) Lieberman's SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER, a return to directing from Lieberman after a 20-some-year hiatus, while not of the caliber of his earlier work, is a sardonic little horror piece that plays much, much better if you listen to the director's commentary before viewing the actual movie. More thought went into SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER than you may think. But Lieberman has always been a director with brilliant premises. SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is perhaps his very best premise. And personally, I loved the gaudy, bright, ghoulish Halloween imagery - the dollar-store-take on Halloween. (Satan's mask is iconic, I daresay.) I, for one, am glad that Lieberman made another movie, and hope he makes several more. He is one of America's most interesting directors. My only problem with SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is I don't feel it went far enough. The premise is sick and disturbing; it could've been some sort of morbid masterpiece. As is, it's worth a rental, and I'm just happy Lieberman's still doing something different.

IMDB Reviewer