Written and directed by Spider One, in a desperate attempt to protect her ten-year-old daughter, a young widow allows a nightmarish monster to slowly eat her alive. Starring: Krsy Fox, Jon Sklaroff, Elizabeth Phoenix Caro, Barbara Crampton, Heather Langenkamp, Bonnie Aarons, Chaz Bono, Lyndsi LaRose and Mark Kelly.
With Little Bites, there’s one very big element to get out of the way and that’s whether you’re going into this film looking for a piece of entertaining horror, or an exploration of motherhood through genre. Quite honestly, if you’re looking for the latter, you’re going to be in the wrong headspace, as much as Spider One may have wanted to make a rumination on the toll it takes to be a mother, that’s not really what he ended up with. You can try to twist it into that, but you’ll take all of the fun out of it because the real value in that discussion comes from female filmmakers.
So, instead of trying to open up a debate about male filmmakers exploring issues that are specific to women, just have a good time with this and you’ll be much better off. It absolutely does not need to anything more than an offbeat, sinister adventure of a mother trying to bargain with the monster in her basement. Along the way Spider One makes you question what’s real and what isn’t, leading you to doubt the sanity of Krsy Fox’s Mindy while also intrigued by how far she’s willing to go to protect her daughter. It’s a solid story, it moves well and while you may have questions, everything is also surprisingly laid bare.
One of the reasons that’s surprising, is because at the same time it manages to build a really great tension. Having this battle right out in front of you, both Mindy’s fight against Agyar (Jon Sklaroff) and the one within herself, creates a nice balance of being simple but not basic. A lot of that is due to the quality of the direction, there’s a strong atmosphere and it keeps continually injecting suspense and tension. There’s also a superb design to Agyar, making creatures relative to humans yet darkly twisted is always a good choice to be nicely creepy.
While Spider One may be Rob Zombie’s brother, their cinematic styles have very little in common, other than casting their partners in lead roles. Although, there’s no special favours here because Krsy Fox was without question the right choice for Mindy. The way that she portrays this character is pretty dead on, giving her an unhinged edge but never going too far. Making her just unstable enough while holding onto an effortless sympathy, giving her a huge vulnerability but never taking away her strength and resilience, it’s an excellent performance.
Fox is the star of the show here but it’s always a delight to see horror icons Barbara Crampton and Heather Langenkamp make an appearance. Unsurprisingly they both give memorable performances and may only appear briefly but have plenty to add. The surprise is with Elizabeth Phoenix Caro, when she first arrives, it’s hard to get a beat on how this performance will go. She’s quiet and withdrawn, fairly hesitant but when things really get going she accents the final scenes in a satisfying way. Jon Sklaroff is also excellent, the accent and presence are reminiscent of Malcolm McDowell or Terence Stamp, there’s a nastiness and malicious nature to his performance which is terrific.
Little Bites may not quite know what it is but if you go in with the right attitude, you can have a great time with it. Trying to dig deep into motherhood should be left to female filmmakers in this day and age so the best course of action is to skip looking for those layers and simply enjoy its battle of wills. It’s tense, creepy and fun, if you lean into its awkwardness and how it lays everything out bare, there’s a big entertainment value. Whether or not Spider One was attempting to make some sort of statement on motherhood is irrelevant because along the way he created a strong piece of horror, with a great cast, solid atmosphere and very decent directorial style.
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