Bad Milo Review: Not Quite

Stress comes to all of us in many forms. One of those possible forms is a monster living inside you that comes out and kills people. That’s the premise for Jacob Vaughn’s “Bad Milo,” a comedy horror that feels like it really was pulled out of somebody’s anus and didn’t quite smell right.

Duncan Hayslip has a ton of problems in his life. His parents are divorced, his wife wants to have a kid, he hates his job and he constantly has stomach problems. His life gets much worse when he finds out he has a monster living inside his anus that comes out to kill people. His psychologist tells him to bond with it and give him name. He calls it Milo.

You’ll call it a good idea that turns into a waste of time.

This movie is pure grade-A B-movie schlock. Think about it: The main lead has a monster living inside his anus. What’s worse is that this monster has two modes: super cute and psychotic killer. In truth, Milo is quite frankly the best and most character in the movie.

That’s right; the monster is the shining star in this film. That doesn’t mean that the actors did a terrible job though. Ken Marino pulls off the career man with a ton of stress and low self-esteem character wonderfully. Gillian Jacobs as Duncan’s wife Sarah also plays the demanding, but loving wife role perfectly.

But that’s where the problems begin. These characters essentially are their roles and, despite some fine acting, are not really that interesting. It’s guaranteed that you’ll forget the characters’ names shortly after the movie ends.

Writer/director Jacob Vaughn said that, “the creature feature genre tends to be a little formulaic sometimes” and decided to make this movie funny instead of serious. But the problem is this movie is formulaic and not funny. The idea of a monster coming out of a man’s anus is funny for five seconds then the joke is dead. What passes for humor in this movie is raunchy jokes we’ve heard too many times. There may be a few chuckles here there but that’s all you’ll get.

Then there are the victims. The victims are supposed to be people that give Duncan a ton of stress. The problem is that two of the three victims didn’t deserve it and the reasons they were killed are just childish. At least the other victim had it coming to him.

“Bad Milo” tries to be a comedy horror ,but it comes off as childish and formulaic. The excellent acting and Milo aren’t enough to warrant this even a “so bad it’s good” label the creators were going for.