The horror-comedy “Cooties” — a genially low-budget tale of teachers fighting off a pack of elementary-school-age zombies — milks its midnight-movie aesthetic for all it is worth, mixing obviously fake gore and over-the-top violence with macabre, pop-culture humor.
“I blame rap music,” cracks science teacher Doug (co-writer Leigh Whannell), after the kids at his school have turned into a pack of the flesh-eating undead, courtesy of a tainted chicken nugget in the cafeteria.
Whannell, best known as a writer and actor from the “Insidious” films, plays second fiddle to Elijah Wood, who portrays the movie’s ostensible hero, an aspiring novelist relegated to teaching at his alma mater while he works on a manuscript about a possessed ship. But it’s Rainn Wilson who steals the show as the cocky physical education teacher who takes charge when the pint-size monsters corner him and his fellow educators.
The acting, by an ensemble that also includes Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock,” Nasim Pedrad of “Saturday Night Live” and Jorge Garcia of “Lost,” is broad and campy, in the spirit of a movie that’s best washed down with an adult beverage.
