Monsters

This British sci-fi indie caught my eye at the recent BAFTA's where it was nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Director. Although it subsequently lost out my intrigue didn't waiver.

It's set six years after NASA discovers the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. New life forms began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an Infected Zone. The American and Mexican military struggle to contain "the creatures" and the story centres around a US journalist who is made to escort his bosses daughter back to the safety of the US border. Sounds interesting right?? Especially considering that the budget was under $500,000 and all of the special effects were done by writer/director Gareth Edwards with off-the-shelf software on his home PC!

I was surprised to find that we are shown one of "the monsters" during the opening credits. I was afraid that due to the small budget that it was going to be one of those frustrating films where you never really see the aliens. It worked well in the old films like Jaws but lets face it, in this day and age we really want to see what's going on. So this was a nice early surprise. The "monsters" take on giant squid-like forms which added to their authenticity as I wasn't thinking "wtf" when I saw them.

 

So we follow Sam(Whitney Able) and Caulder(Scoot McNairy) as their trip home faces setbacks and they end up rather predictably having to go through the heart of the Infected Zone. I'll say right off that I thought the acting was great. In essence, Monsters is a love-story and the director deliberately chose a real life couple as his leads. The sexual tension is very real and it works to create believable potential in their relationship. Able is extremely easy on the eye but I did get a bit annoyed with her persistent "I'm deep in thought looking into the distance" face. I got over this though and she was likeable, not the cringe, weak and vulnerable female leads which are usually seen in these sorts of films. Unfortunately I got a vibe from McNairy's character which I can only describe as dickish! I did warm to him, though, as the film progressed and he delivered a great quote. When asked by Sam whether he feels bad that something sad has to happen for him to have work he says, "what....like a doctor?".

The suspense is genuine and I was frequently found on the edge of my bean bag during run-ins with the creatures! It doesn't have too much of an indie feel about it which is testament to Edwards' production team and amazing considering all the extras were locals whom he persuaded to be in the film!

I couldn't help but think that "the Wall" (erected by the US to keep out the monsters) was a little dig at them but having some British pride in me I loved it. All in all I really, really enjoyed Monsters and would highly recommend it, a brilliantly elegant scene at the end was very intense and brought a smile to my face. Even if the very end was a bit abrupt for me. An unusual setting for a romance, Monsters shows that you don't need big budgets to produce a captivating movie..