What
do you get when you cross Joe Dante’s Gremlins
with a lower intestinal infection from Hell?
His name is Milo and he lives up Duncan Hayslip’s’ backside. You really
do not want to see him come out, but that happens when you stress out his
host. The hemorrhoidal hulk will rage in
Jacob Vaughan’s Bad Milo! (trailer here), which opens
today in New York.
Hayslip
has a new set of responsibilities at work—laying people off. He also has a new office—an almost converted
men’s room, which he shares with an annoying colleague. His wife is always on his case about starting
a family, while his mother carries on with her boy toy. Gastrointestinally, he is not doing so
well. It turns out, that is Milo. When Hayslip is sufficiently agitated, Milo
attacks.
Thanks
to the help of his eccentric therapist’s hypnosis sessions, Hayslip discovers
his inner demon. However, he can only hope
to contain him, so to speak, because Milo is a part of him. Without Milo, he would be like Good Kirk
without Bad Kirk. Nonetheless,
controlling Milo will be quite a trick.
While
there are healthy servings of gore and gross-out humor, Bad Milo is not nearly as scatological as one would easily assume.
Oddly enough, it a largely character driven affair, deriving most of its laughs
from a slightly skewed perspective on very real world concerns. Still, let’s not kid ourselves—it is genre
fans who want to see a rampaging butt-monster that will turn out for Bad Milo, rather than those looking for
this generation’s Death of a Salesman.
The
State alumnus Ken Marino is likably grounded as Hayslip, selling the
uncomfortable concept as well as anyone could hope. Following in the wake of
some befuddling casting choices (like say, a redneck in Jewtopia), Peter Stormare sort of seems to fit as Highsmith,
hamming it up with enthusiasm. As a puppet-creature, Milo is also pretty
effective, with variants designed by Mike Ezell for scenes of slimy bedlam as
well as New Agey teaching moments.
