Monsters (2010)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
Synopsis:
With a large swathe of Central America infected by an extraterrestrial lifeform, a photo-journalist attempts to escort his boss's daughter back from Mexico to California, first by official routes, then with paid guides.
Review:
Apparently shot on a shoestring budget of $800,000, the effects work completed on Edwards's home computer, this fresh little monster movie employs a video diary aesthetic in line with recent 'found footage' horror efforts, but plays down the violence and gore to explore the evolving relationship between its main character couple. As the antihero's attitude gradually morphs from unfeeling pragmatism about the photographs he takes to a new sensitivity, so this unkempt, hard-drinking bum becomes a soft-centred loveable guy with a six year-old son he is unable to see. It is sweetly done, with a final scene that breaks with generic tradition by using the monsters as matchmakers rather than predators, and undoubtedly the handheld camera helps steer it all away from mawkishness. The dialogue, however, is not quite as fresh as the conception.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
Synopsis:
With a large swathe of Central America infected by an extraterrestrial lifeform, a photo-journalist attempts to escort his boss's daughter back from Mexico to California, first by official routes, then with paid guides.
Review:
Apparently shot on a shoestring budget of $800,000, the effects work completed on Edwards's home computer, this fresh little monster movie employs a video diary aesthetic in line with recent 'found footage' horror efforts, but plays down the violence and gore to explore the evolving relationship between its main character couple. As the antihero's attitude gradually morphs from unfeeling pragmatism about the photographs he takes to a new sensitivity, so this unkempt, hard-drinking bum becomes a soft-centred loveable guy with a six year-old son he is unable to see. It is sweetly done, with a final scene that breaks with generic tradition by using the monsters as matchmakers rather than predators, and undoubtedly the handheld camera helps steer it all away from mawkishness. The dialogue, however, is not quite as fresh as the conception.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 94m
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
Synopsis:
With a large swathe of Central America infected by an extraterrestrial lifeform, a photo-journalist attempts to escort his boss's daughter back from Mexico to California, first by official routes, then with paid guides.
Review:
Apparently shot on a shoestring budget of $800,000, the effects work completed on Edwards's home computer, this fresh little monster movie employs a video diary aesthetic in line with recent 'found footage' horror efforts, but plays down the violence and gore to explore the evolving relationship between its main character couple. As the antihero's attitude gradually morphs from unfeeling pragmatism about the photographs he takes to a new sensitivity, so this unkempt, hard-drinking bum becomes a soft-centred loveable guy with a six year-old son he is unable to see. It is sweetly done, with a final scene that breaks with generic tradition by using the monsters as matchmakers rather than predators, and undoubtedly the handheld camera helps steer it all away from mawkishness. The dialogue, however, is not quite as fresh as the conception.