FILM REVIEW: Bad Milo! (2013)

Bad Milo!  is a film that has gotten quite a lot of press for the crazy subject matter. We won't spoil the film for you...but, imagine if you had a demon...inside you. Like...deep inside you. Like...deep, deep inside you. And it came out whenever you were stressed out about something to help you deal with that particular stress. Well, Matt Dean checked out Bad Milo!  and had some interesting stuff to say about the film!

Let’s get the teenage snickering out of the way first: yes, Bad Milo!  is a film about a possessed intestinal tract emerging from a man’s anal cavity and attacking people with its razor-sharp teeth. On the surface, BM (that’s a conveniently funny abbreviation for this movie) could be taken as just another scatological comedy with elements of horror geared towards that late night crowd that just took a bong hit and has a plate of pizza pockets, fresh out of a dirty microwave waiting, to be devoured by anyone that crosses its path. And, it may very well be, but I firmly believe that it offers so much more that most horror films don't: motive and reasoning for its violence.

First, the cast is a perfect mixture of recognizable names and ‘hey, I know that guy – he was in that thing.’ Ken Marino (Wet Hot American Summer), Gillian Jacobs (Community, The Box), Mary Kay Place (Big Love), Patrick Warburton (Scream 3, Seinfeld, Family Guy) and Peter Stormare (Armageddon, Fargo, 8mm) fill the movie with laughs and not the horrible acting chops that you'd expect from a movie with this kind of plot. I was really wanting / looking for a couple of horror cameos, just to help solidify it as more of a horror flick; maybe a Linda Blair or a Ken Foree, but alas, I don't always get what I want.

The plot centers on Duncan, a man with more than enough stress to go around. At home, his wife is eager to have a child. At work he has just been tasked with firing people and has also just been issued a brand spanking new office – in the bathroom. He never sees his dad and his mother can't keep her lips off of her new boyfriend who just so happens to be younger than Duncan. All of these things are giving Duncan a severe case of the runs. He stays in the bathroom. It even gets so bad that he has to go see a specialist. The specialist says that he sees something, though; a polyp. They schedule a surgery to remove it, but that night, during an eventful bathroom session where Duncan passes out, the real culprit emerges: a section of Duncan’s intestines seems to have grown into a creature with big black eyes and a mouth full of layers and layers of teeth. The first victim is Duncan’s co-worker who is always screwing up, causing Duncan to work longer and longer hours. The news labels it a rabid raccoon attack, but as Duncan will soon realize, they're dealing with something much scarier than an animal. I’ll leave the rest of the story for you viewers out there, but I think we've covered enough ground to be able to point out where I think Bad Milo!  really elevates itself.

My favorite monsters of horror are the real-life ones. Sure, Freddy and Michael and Jason and Frankenstein's monster are awesome, but, for me, it’s the everyday people who crack that really interest me. People like Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter and Patrick Bateman; people who live somewhat normal lives and then one day just up and eat somebody or chop them up with a chainsaw. While Duncan has many similarities with these characters, he also has one huge difference: he never cracks. His body cracks. They say that when you’re under enough stress that your body will do whatever it has to in order to gain relief. Duncan’s body created a monster to help alleviate the stress by literally killing it. In this aspect, he may be more akin to a character like Leatherface or The Hulk who create violent alternate personalities to deal with the craziness happening all around them. This doesn't necessarily make their actions ok, but it’s more morally understandable than someone making a conscious decision to kill another human being. It’s because of this that I think Bad Milo!  has more to offer than your everyday slasher.

In summation, I think that Bad Milo!  is definitely worth the watch; it’s funny, it creates a character that we've never seen before and may never see again and it has a lot of heart in it, something that most movies – not just horror – are lacking these days.

Watch Bad Milo!  on Netflix!

Matt, Signing Out