This one starts very strong. Mindy Vogel (Krsy Fox), a single mother, is summoned to her basement by the ringing of a bell. A barely glimpsed monster with a lugubrious but threatening voice demands that she feed him. They engage in a dialogue from which we infer this is something of a long-term dynamic, with the grim beast nibbling from her arm on a regular basis. She tells him she’ll need to go to the hospital if this carries on much longer; the abusive relationship parallels are not accidental. This monster is dangerous, but he’s also a parasite, standing in contrast to the horror genre’s typical one-munch-and-you’re-done type beast.
Unfortunately, from this point on the drama sags. Fox’s performance is top-notch, but there are a number of plot points that don’t really stack up. That might not matter in a loopier story-world, but Little Bites is a horror movie where everything is fairly grounded, other than the actual creature. Chief among the dud notes is the unlikely idea that Child Protective Services would so aggressively hunt down a single mother on the flimsy grounds given here (seemingly amounting to the fact that Mindy’s child is staying with her grandmother).
This kind of writing is frustrating, because it feels like another round of script drafts could have fixed things. Surely there is an opportunity for more insidious monster-related problems that give the legitimate appearance of something very wrong at home, such that horror icon Barbara Crampton, who plays the CPS officer, would have no choice but to plausibly intervene.
The flaws are a shame because the casting is fabulous, including Crampton (Re-Animator), Chaz Bono (American Horror Story), and Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street). Luckily, despite the narrative issues, the tension picks up again as the film oozes towards its climax. What could have been a real contender with a few relatively minor tweaks is still a serviceable morsel for those with the right kind of appetite.
• Little Bites is on Shudder and AMC+ from 21 February.
