BAD MILO (2013)

Studio:       Magnet Releasing
Director:    Jacob Vaughan
Writer:       Benjamin Hayes, Jacob Vaughan
Producer:  Adele Romanski, Gabriel Cowan, John Suits
Stars:     Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, Mary Kay Place, Stephen Root, Peter Stormare

Review Score: 

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Summary:

The daily stress of a blue-collar family man manifests itself as a devilish creature that lives inside his colon.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Chased by something unseen, Duncan Hayslip frantically runs down the street and into his mother’s house. Duncan pleads with his wife Sarah to hide in the basement as his pursuer breaks down the door.

123 Hours Earlier – A sonogram shows a strange polyp inside Duncan’s digestive tract. Doctor Yeager suggests that the colon lump is due to poor stress management. He refers Duncan to a therapist named Highsmith.

At work, Duncan’s boss Phil reassigns Duncan from Accounting to Human Resources because Phil needs someone to conduct job terminations. Phil gives Duncan an office in the men’s room where he will be working with Allistair. Duncan goes to see Highsmith, but nothing comes of the session.

Duncan and Sarah have dinner with Duncan’s oversexed mother Beatrice and her young second husband Bobbi. Beatrice has also invited fertility doctor Lawrence Tip in an attempt to spur a pregnancy for her son and his wife. Allistair calls Duncan to tell him that he accidentally deleted an important file.

Back at home, Duncan retreats to the bathroom when his stomach becomes upset over the mounting anxiety. While his wife ignores the sounds with earplugs, a creature painfully emerges from Duncan’s anus and renders him unconscious. The creature goes to the office and kills Allistair before returning to Duncan’s colon.

The KRAC morning news reports Allistair’s death, but attributes it to a rabid raccoon. Duncan reports to work and Phil has him begin the firings. Dr. Tip leaves Duncan a voicemail pressuring him to come to the fertility clinic. Duncan dreams that his intestinal creature attacks Dr. Yeager during a colonoscopy.

Duncan returns to Highsmith for a hypnosis session. The creature emerges from Duncan while he is under hypnosis and jumps out the window. Highsmith tells Duncan about an ancient myth regarding the anus. Highsmith theorizes that the creature emerges to kill when Duncan is stressed. It is the raw desire of his subconscious and Duncan should try relating to it.

The creature kills Dr. Tip in an alleyway after the man performs oral sex on a woman. It then returns to Highsmith’s office, where Duncan dives it the name Milo, and it crawls back inside Duncan.

Duncan discovers a major account discrepancy at the office the next day. Phil coaxes Duncan to commit fraud as a coverup. The news reports Dr. Tip’s death as another raccoon attack.

During a sock puppet session at Highsmith’s, Duncan reveals a strained relationship with his father. Highsmith encourages him to make amends with his father Roger, who lives in a shack.

Duncan visits Roger and asks his father to come to therapy with him. He refuses. Due to the stress, Milo emerges while Duncan is in Roger’s outhouse. Duncan convinces Milo to go back inside him and he will feed the creature when he returns to the office.

At work, federal agents seize all the of the office’s records and assets. Duncan confronts Phil about the government investigation and learns that all of his money in the company is now lost. Duncan allows Milo to kill Phil in an elevator.

Sarah tells Duncan she is pregnant. Already stressed about the money and Phil’s death, the untimely news causes Duncan to leave the house. Duncan and Milo bond while he lives on his own.

Duncan convinces Roger to participate in a session with Highsmith. When father and son engage in a heated confrontation, creatures emerge from both men. Roger’s demon is named Ralph. Milo stabs Ralph, which in turn cripples Roger. When Milo learns that Duncan’s wife is pregnant, the creature escapes out the window again. Realizing that Sarah and his unborn child are in danger, Duncan runs to his mother’s house where Sarah is attending a party.

Duncan arrives in the opening scene and convinces Sarah to hide in Beatrice’s sex dungeon basement. Milo eventually breaks into the house and uses the garbage disposal to enter the basement through the pipes. Milo attacks Sarah, but Duncan comes to her rescue. Sarah retreats to the backyard with the other partygoers. Milo pursues and the partygoers confront the demon with tiki torches.

Duncan arrives and chops off Milo’s legs and an arm. Beatrice reveals that she knew Roger had a colon creature, but did not know it was hereditary. Duncan makes amends with Milo and the creature returns to his anus. Duncan apologizes to his wife.

Duncan opens his own financial consulting firm. Roger has become an invalid. Sarah’s unborn child is revealed to be a boy and the child is shown to have a creature growing inside of it.

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Review:

Remember that classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Theodoric of York?”  Steve Martin played a medieval barber practicing medicine in the Middle Ages.  In boasting about recent medical advancements circa the year 1303, Martin’s Theodoric exclaims, “just fifty years ago we would have thought your daughter’s illness was brought on by demonic possession or witchcraft.”  After he and Jane Curtain chuckle at the outdated notion, Theodoric adds, “but nowadays, we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors perhaps caused by a toad or small dwarf living in her stomach.”  “Bad Milo” is that joke visualized as a full horror comedy feature, except that the small dwarf is now a demon and the stomach has been swapped for a colon.

Resembling a handsomer version of Ray Romano with a less nasally voice and a small dash of Nathan Fillion to boot, Ken Marino is Duncan, an ordinary Johnny Lunchpail with the extraordinary affliction of possessing a demon that lives in his colon.  This particular creature, Milo, has a tendency to tear himself loose and then tear apart another person whenever Duncan’s stress levels peak.  With mounting pressures to start a family and a new job at work conducting layoffs from an office in the men’s room, Milo is seeing increased opportunities to be unleashed for a killing spree before returning to hibernation in Duncan’s intestinal tract.

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                                         Nathan Fillion + Ray Romano = Ken Marino? 

“Bad Milo” has its own digestive tract of comedy that features a large intestine of toilet humor and a small intestine that is not as overt about its laughs.  In fact, “Bad Milo” is occasionally much funnier than it gives itself credit for.  Many of the best jokes are slyly hidden in the dialogue and in nuances of the performances.  Yet the emphasis for netting chuckles is overwhelmingly on the rectal pain of Milo going in and out of Ken Marino’s anus while loud sounds from a wet whoopee cushion provide an accompanying soundtrack.

While “Bad Milo” may appeal to an audience appreciative of plentiful poop jokes, it is a shame that the script and the direction did not do more to play up the less obvious comedy.  Subtleties in character portrayals like Toby Huss as Dr. Yeager are scene stealers with the dialogue delivery and facial expressions.  Duncan’s youthful father-in-law and a fertility doctor dinner guest are just as hysterical, although their material is more apparent.  In between the two spectrums are solid visual gags that do not always have to resort to brown smears on clothing for eliciting a smirk.  After all, it is difficult to not laugh at the notion of a lucky rabbit’s foot being included in a job termination’s severance package.

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                                                        E.T. + a Ghoulie = Bad Milo?

For those less in-your-face jokes, it is either out of respect for the audience to “get it,” or poor filmmaking that the movie at times forgets to draw more attention to itself.  Especially since drawing attention to itself is something that “Bad Milo” can do quite well.  Particularly, it seems as though director Jacob Vaughan gave much of his cast free reign to let loose with their roles.  Given the resumes of its cast, that might be a good idea on paper, but not one that worked out in practice.

Peter Stormare does what Peter Stormare usually does, which is playing a zany eccentric who is typically reserved except for those unpredictable moments of explosiveness.  Stephen Root gives his own take on a hippie deadbeat dad living in a shack in the woods.  And Patrick Warburton is the slimy boss with a slick mouth and condescending charm.  Individually, they work okay.  As a total package, there is a unifying comedic timing absent from “Bad Milo” since each scene is left to its own devices.

As can already be garnered from the plot description, enjoyment of “Bad Milo” is largely dependent upon how much humor someone finds in the concept of a colon creature.  If that person laughs at cries of constipation and the sounds of toilet water splashing, then all the better.  Yet as a well-rounded comedy, “Bad Milo” is missing a snappier pace and more confidence in intelligent jokes that would have given it a broader appeal.

Review Score:  65

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