There are very few horror comedies out there that I would consider good, but Cooties somehow made its way onto that list. Unlike similar movies that may rely on physical gags, a majority of the comedy here came from the witty dialogue written by co-scribes Leigh Whannell (Saw, Insidious) and Ian Brennan (Glee, Scream Queens), both of whom apparently make a great team when it comes to mixing comedy and horror together.

The film revolves around a group of teachers in an elementary school, specifically Elijah Wood's character as the new substitute. It looks like he picked the wrong day to start subbing, because some tainted chicken nuggets causes an outbreak among the students, turning the spoiled brats into feral savages bent on killing off the entire teaching staff. Now they must band together and hope to discover a way out of the school without getting torn to bits. So Cooties is basically a clever take on a common theme with some comedy thrown in, and it actually works!

There was a time when killing kids was pretty taboo and though some genre pics have ventured into that territory over the years, it's still not something you see very often. While it can still be considered a little controversial to some, I think moviegoers now have grown a bit more lenient towards the theme, especially if they're zombie-esque little shits like in this movie. And on that note, there's a decent amount of practical makeup and gore with very little CGI used, which is a sigh of relief, because too many horror flicks go the quick CG route nowadays.

What really stood out for me were the quirky cast of characters, each one offering something unique and funny to the table, like Rainn Wilson as the overbearing gym teacher that's not afraid to take charge and get things done or the badass Japanese janitor that takes on multiple infected kids at once with garden sheers; it's just a full set of entertaining characters that you want to make it out alive. It all works together with the hilarious dialogue, making it a pretty fun and well paced movie overall. But of course, comedy is subjective, so some may not find it as funny as I did.

Also, as much as I did like the film, I just wished it wasn't all mostly taken place in the school and the ending was a bit open-ended, which I guess is fine since there are really only so many ways to end a movie like this, but it didn't really offer any closure, which would've been nice.

Cooties isn't the most original of films to come out in the genre as of late, but it sure is a lot of fun! The characters were lively and interesting, there was a decent amount of practical gore, and the dialogue was even hilarious at times. Though the ending was a little lacking and some may not find it as funny as I did, it's at least a pretty entertaining flick overall.