Some movies need to be a standalone, hour-long episode of a horror anthology television series like “The Outer Limits,” “Masters of Horror” or “The Hunger,” but instead movies like “Little Bites” (2024) gets stretched past the point of interest. Widow and mom, Mindy Vogel (Krsy Fox), may have sent her ten-year-old daughter, Alice (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro), to stay with her Mother (Bonnie Aarons), but she is not alone. Mindy has an unwanted guest in her basement, Agyar (Jon Sklaroff), a flesh-eating monster who agrees to spare Alice if Mindy allows him to feed on her. Mindy is finding it challenging to hold up her end of the bargain without dying. How can she protect her daughter and herself? Writer and director Spider One, who is from Massachusetts and is Rob Zombie’s little brother, makes his sophomore film, which is not a slump or a success.
With a one hour forty-five-minute runtime, a stylized set that will make you wonder when the events are supposed to occur and an acting style more deliberately monotone than a Wes Anderson film, “Little Bites” wears out its welcome like Agyar, a being who resembles the Big Bad from season 1 of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” without the fashion sense and has the nerve to possess a gentile demeanor while ripping Mindy to shreds. It clearly gets off on acting as if they have a relationship though it is not sexual like the vamp in any version of “Nosferatu.” It is all about power and making Mindy feel powerless to allow her survival instinct to kick in and fight back. With its head in her lap or ignoring her modest requests for compromise, it is not about desire. The story never reveals how they came to this arrangement. If not for the whispers in a dark room and the control, Agyar could be another unreasonable child that cannot be reasoned with but only cares about its hunger and survival, but that does not describe this monster. It feels like a coercive control abuser who threatens to kill a loved one if his victim is noncompliant. There are quite a few haunting images that reinforce this impression: water tinged with blood running down the shower drain, which also felt like a shout out to “Psycho” (1960), standing naked in front of a mirror to assess all the wounds and covering up to hide scars and sunken eyes.
Mindy cannot win. Everyone can see that she is a mess whether it is a fellow mom, Gail (Lyndsi LaRose), a CPS worker, Sonya Whitfield (Barbara Crampton, horror icon), or another mother, Elienor (Heather Langenkamp, Nancy from “Nightmare on Elm Street”). The scene at the supermarket with Gail feels like a shout out to “The Stepford Wives” (1975), and the unrealistic, dehumanizing expectations that women face. Most of those people judge her so she cannot get help and is alone in her predicament. Her Mother is the most egregious and displeased with whatever Mindy does. Being a woman and/or a mother is a no-win situation. Most of them are monstrous for the way that they devour each other.
Mindy sees the CPS worker as an enemy, and while it makes sense, Mindy comes across as dumb for not taking her seriously or in the ways that she tries to evade her., but who does not lose a brain cell or two if you are losing sleep, flesh and blood to a demonic moocher in your basement. Mindy’s resentment is displaced, especially since Sonya is right for the wrong reasons: her home is unsuitable for a child. Normally an unlikeable woman pprotagonist is refreshing, but in “Little Bites,” it could be annoying even if it was the point. What kind of monster is Mindy? Does she hurt the weak to save herself and her daughter thus perpetuating abuse or should she direct her anger at the source of her ills? Isn’t Mindy as bad as the rest of them for resisting the CPS worker, who wants to protect her daughter?
Going into “Little Bites,” there is a male character who finally had enough self-preservation to be aware that he was in danger, but too polite, people-pleasing and agreeable to just uphold his boundaries. I immediately thought, “That man must be trans or women raised him because he is acting like a woman who knows that she is in danger but is trying to find a way to get out of it without offending the other person.” After the movie ended, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that a trans man plays this character, which triggered a thought about the men in this film. They are countercultural in the way that they dress, navigate the world, or choose their professions. Even Aygar, who appears to be male presenting, prefers to wear a little black dress if it decides to be presentable. The presumably gender normative father is dead, and his loss is what makes the surviving family vulnerable to becoming prey. Is there a statement that harkens back to the days of classic Hollywood about how following gender normative behavior puts one at risk? Otherwise the father seems like a non-issue unless Aygar is really supposed to be about depression and grief, which would feel unearned though that theme could have worked with a lot of revisions.
Even though Spider One spells out what he is going for, it still feels like he is missing some crucial dynamics. His solution, though empowering and arresting, encourages further perpetuation of abuse through parentification as if Mindy is mistaken for protecting and shielding Alice. “Little Bites” falters where “The Monkey” (2025) excels at balancing protection, togetherness and vigilance. While a mother self-sacrificing to the point of death is not a great alternative, it is the point of parenthood to not expose children to threats and trauma. Parents care for children, not children for parents. If he had emphasized that Mindy needs to educate Alice to recognize danger and not to suffer in silence or accept abuse, it would have worked as a way of breaking a cycle that only instills resentment in mothers against daughters because they chose to give too much without preparing them for the real world.
There is a moment of suspense whether Alice will betray her mother to CPS, especially since Mindy has not had an opportunity to prep Alice with a cover story. Alice clearly is concerned that her mother may be losing her mind. Even though children are not the suitable audience for “Little Bites,” it is not a great lesson to encourage them to ignore their instincts and protect their parent. Kids need to be protected. It is abuse to make a child protect a parent.
“Little Bites” felt like a horror reprise of “Stella Dallas” (1937). The real threat is that all this sacrifice is for nothing as if children chose to be born and owe their parents for doing the job that they signed up for. Is parental sacrifice worth it? Mindy and Aygar are the fixed points in the story, but the events pivot on Alice’s choices. There are so many false endings that waiting for the other shoe to drop does not ramp up the tension but is just aggravating. Aygar is real and seems like the kind of being who keeps its word. If Aygar wants to eat Alice, Aygar wants to eat Alice.
“Little Bites” is just too long, heavy handed and stylized to fully enjoy and forget that you are watching a movie. While the cast does a good job, and the seventies aesthetic feels innately unsettling, a movie rises and falls with a solid story. It just does not work or feel practical and possible. There is so much good content that it feels a shame to use precious time on a movie that lacks momentum instead of something better, but it should not be dismissed as a waste either.
