Down-and-out Duncan (Ken Marino) struggles with his wife (Gillian Jacobs) and her desire to start a family, while working through his own traumatic childhood memories. Just when he thinks things couldn’t get worse, Ken discovers a monster living up his butt. (That is not a typo.) The physical manifestation of bottled-up male anger, this fanged runt, named Milo, rumbles in Ken’s insides like a bad burrito. When emotions flare, the critter funnels out of Ken’s behind and aims to kill.
Jacob Vaughan’s Gremlins-esque horror-comedy goes big with its midnight-movie-sized servings of gross-out humor and bloodshed; what’s surprising is how it also finds time to sink its teeth into the volatile nature of relationships. (You can tell the film’s producers, Mark and Jay Duplass, have embedded the DNA of their low-key dramas here.) Community’s Jacobs mixes scream queen with romantic chemistry, and whenever the gags get too scatological (and they do), Marino bends over backward to inject them with personality. Bad Milo! is sick—but it’s the right kind of sick.
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