MONSTER X – Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

Monster X is the type of all in good fun monster flick that you can’t help but just enjoy for what it is. There’s a sense from looking at the overall reception that the film is some insult to the art form that is film, but that’s really not the case. In fact, Monster X is a lot more fun to watch than most monster films as of recent, mainly because it tends to cut to the point. Whereas slasher films of recent have almost required a bit of a complicated story (see the still very good Alien: Covenant and its predecessor for an example of that), Monster X is just a thin rollicking anthology made by people clearly passionate about making a horror anthology.

Being an anthology there are parts here that work and parts that don’t work, though each story does contain a headlining moment. The first story, having to do with a monstrous banshee, has some great jumps and actually takes a moment to try and develop its characters. A story involving werewolves and vampires becomes uses its kitschy premise to build to what is ultimately a pretty funny ending and a story about vampires is just schlocky enough to work, leading to a hysterical reversal. Now, that isn’t to say that this is high art, but it wasn’t ever trying to be. On the modest level that Monster X is working on, it succeeds most of the time.

That being said, that modest ambition is a little boilerplate throughout most of the film. There are a few times when the film decides to come to life through some intense camera work or a well-placed joke but overall the good moments come from writing rather than direction, with a lot of the drama coming from the reversals that are based in the writing and not complimented by the direction. The direction is fine, but everything just seems too standard or at worst incompetent.

Monster X is the type of time waster that most critics would tear to shreds as a crime against cinema, but it is not really that bad. In fact, it even has moments of dread, hilarity and overall bizarreness enough to keep you watching, even when the direction or cinematography isn’t up to snuff. Is it a good film? No, not really. Does it achieve what it comes to do and shines at times for doing so? Yeah, that would be fair. Overall, Monster X is just kind of disposable, but if you’re in the mood for schlocky horror you could do a lot worse.