Cooties

Just about what you'd expect from the writers of Glee (Ian Brennan) and Saw (Leigh Whannell), this comedy horror plays agreeably fast and loose with its twisted gags and bad-taste gore. Chicken nuggets made from tainted meat infect an elementary school's cafeteria, transforming the kids into cannibal killers. It's up to wannabe novelist/substitute teacher Elijah Wood to lead the oddball faculty to safety, while trying to win back the heart of daffy old flame Alison Pill from coarse PE teacher Rainn Wilson, who gets all the best laughs. The set-up is well handled with classes turning into a dizzy Walking Dead playground and the panic created causing as much fun as fright. But co-directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion lose their imaginative grip halfway through, and this unabashed colourful fantasy turns distinctly lukewarm by rigidly adhering to the flesh-eating siege template of old, somewhat failing to deliver on its all-encompassing madcap promise.