Bad Milo! (2013)

To say Duncan (Ken Marino) has a lot of stress in his life is an understatement.  His boss at work manipulates him into moving his office into the restroom, the pressure is on to have a child, and his inability to do so leads people to presume he has impotency issues, all of this in turn leads to him having severe gastro-intestinal problems.

Life’s obstacles can get us all down and we have to fight off our inner demons to move forward, but Duncan literally has to deal with his inner demon.  Bruce Banner had The Hulk.  Allan of “Monkey Shines” had his vengeful monkey Ella.  When Duncan gets too upset, a little demon, later named Milo, comes out of his butt.  Resembling an oddly-cute fleshly bobble-head and sounding like a mogwai, Milo is a little ball of uncontrollable id and fury, ready to kill anyone who gets in the way of Duncan’s happiness.

Bad Milo! easily could’ve been just a silly horror-comedy gore-fest that succeeded purely on its premise, but where the film surprised me was the decision to have Duncan (aided by his therapist Peter Stormare, in a clever stand out performance), try to bond with the little anal beast and learn to embrace his dark side. Marino ably carries this film, perfectly conveying the horror of Milo’s presence, his hope to move past his issues, and his worries about paternity and turning into his father. Also worth noting is the fact that, in the age of cheap CGI creatures, the filmmakers decided to go a bit more low-fi. Like the Muppets and Gremlins before him, the character of Milo is able to succeed through the charm of puppetry.

This film really has a lot to say about the anxiety of fatherhood, and is actually quite a sweet story about stress management…while of course while still delivering the carnage and laughs you would expect from a movie about an ass demon.