SXSW Review: MONSTERS

MONSTERS is a film that shoots itself in the foot, undeservedly, with a misleading title. Intentional or not, the title would give the average moviegoer the impression of scary creatures of some sort, wreaking havoc upon unsuspecting citizens within the confines of the horror of science-fiction genre. This turns out to be only partially true, but merely as a vehicle for the primary story.

Written and directed by Garreth Edwards, MONSTERS is primarily a love story, lightly flavored with a socio-political sci-fi glaze that adds a hint of excitement to otherwise slow, but curiously interesting story. The director deserves his props, considering the entire movie was created from his laptop. Impressive, no matter how audiences view the finished product.

The story follows Andrew, played by Scoot McNairy, a struggling photojournalist working south of the border with hopes of catching tragically graphic copy to earn his a decent wage. As the character explains, photographs depicting children killed by the foreign creatures pay well, while images of safe and happy children pay nothing. It’s an unfortunate, but blistering reality of the demand within the journalism market. Andrew meets Samantha in Mexico, played by Whitney Able, daughter of a wealthy media mogul and Andrew’s employer. He is tasked with safely returning Samantha to the United States, but the pair will find this proves more easily said than done.

Simply speaking, the “monsters” within the film are large, exotically designed alien creatures that have overrun the border region between the USA and Mexico as the result of a meteor crash. Their existence, origin and purpose are left for the audience to glean from their own imaginations, while the film’s focus is firmly geared towards the developing relationship between Andrew and Samantha.

With the “infected zone” quarantined and closed off to the general public and the last ferry to the States out of their grasp, the pair is forced to venture illegally into the dangerous infected zone to cross the border into the States illegally. Their journey is filled with real and implied risks, but what fills the screen time is the unlikely and rocky path on which this pair reluctantly develops an interest for each other. In essence, sharing this rough and risky journey brings the two together, with an aggressive alien infestation as a backdrop.

Conceptually, MONSTERS is a tremendously ambitious and promising story. The filmmaker’s execution bares some flaws in tone and pacing, but otherwise holds up well enough to secure a predictably modest following, especially over time. The special effects are impressive, considering the limited resources and path by which they came to be, but in the later portion of the film feel a bit unwelcome, stealing more than their share of screen time without any immediately recognizable purpose.

Overall, MONSTERS is a moderately successful experiment in genre crossbreeding. The film vaguely mimics some popular contemporary films as stylistic influence, including CLOVERFIELD and THE MIST, but maintains its own footprint. Despite the flaws, MONSTERS is worth checking out, recently made more accessible by its distribution deal with Magnet.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars