“Monsters” — Read Along
Gareth Edwards stunning low budget debut.
Fancy a film entitled “Monsters” that you’d automatically believe to be about monsters but which is anything but and in fact a brilliant low budget tale of unrequited love, an accidental love story perhaps, and of a human desperation to survive against the odds and return to whatever “home” may now be in the wake of a devastating destruction in a post apocalyptic world? How about watching a debut film from an English born filmmaker who on the back of this low budget success story immediately helmed two of Hollywood’s biggest ever franchises (Godzilla and Star Wars) and is soon to be in the hot seat for a third, the universally loved behemoth otherwise known as Jurassic Park?
Welcome, to Jurassic Park, sorry, welcome to the latest instalment of my “Read Along” series of articles whereby I present to you both my original spoiler free appreciation of a favourite film together with my video recording of me reading this review to you. Here’s a snippet from my original review to hopefully whet your cinematic taste buds:
Reputedly costing under £500,000 to make with improvised dialogue from non-actors in impromptu scenes and special effects that were entirely devised and created in the bedroom of the Director, “Monsters” is the archetypal low budget film made good. As well as directing this low budget masterpiece, Gareth Edwards also wrote the screenplay, acted as his own Director of Photography, Production Designer and Visual Effects Supervisor and in the process, created a gem of a film. Dark and subliminal yet in spite of it’s imposing title, Monsters is in the main a surprisingly quiet and reflective film that plays against both it’s simple title and the monster movie genre, being more of a science fiction thriller than a horrifying monster film.
Despite the film’s title, Monsters is not ostensibly a film actually about monsters and aside from two particular scenes in near pitch black darkness it’s also not an especially scary or horrifying film, but this is not to decry or criticise the film in any way. Twisting a rather bad analogy the monsters themselves or “The Creatures” as they are more commonly known, are rather like the world’s most unruly children, heard rather than seen as they wreck their devastation on a monumental scale from city to city in the “infected zone” which splits the border between the United States of America and Mexico.
“Monsters” is rather a film of the shocking aftermath following a huge catastrophe and this is alluded to in the film’s opening prologue as it details a NASA mission six years ago that went awry, scattering alien samples across a vast swathe of the USA/Mexico landmass. Cleverly, director Edwards uses their haunting sounds, cries of anguish and calls for their fellow aliens as well as using constant television news coverage of the creatures to reinforce the threat posed rather than out and out, full blown shots of the aliens, which when seen are reminiscent of the Martians of “War of the Worlds” but always just out of real and crystal clear focus. The unseen danger though is ever present but again cleverly, the film’s real focus is on the overt military presence and response to the emergency situation, with border checkpoints and soldiers on every street, tanks and armaments on stand by to deal with the on going threat as well as fighter jets making regular sorties across the sky.
“Monsters” is an after the event film and a tale of life continuing as normal amid the utter devastation wrought by this unseen and seemingly uncontrollable force and rather than a clichéd “monster movie” it is in fact an ode to children and family, of familial life continuing and adapting to the worst possible scenario surrounding your lifelong community home and furthermore, at it’s heart, Monsters is also an accidental love story of two Americans caught on the wrong side of the quarantined border. Aside from a belligerent, opportunistic and rapacious “Ticket Seller” (Mario Zuniga Benavides) the film wholly focuses on the trials and tribulations of “Andrew Kaulder” (Scoot McNairy) a photographer who reluctantly agrees to escort his employer’s daughter “Samantha Wynden” (Whitney Able) away from the infected zone, to the coast, and home to America. They are both awkward strangers and both have different reasons for returning home aside from attacks from the unseen creatures, with Samantha originally desperate to return and “see my fiancée and live happily ever after” but after being thrown together in a desperate situation and after a drunken night fuelled by Mexican tequila, their dynamic changes as well as their well intended plans for returning home.
"Monsters" (2010) Directed by Gareth Edwards
"Gareth Edwards - Monsters and Godzilla"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.4
"Monsters" - My Youtube channel reading
"Monsters" - My Rumble channel reading
So now dear reader you have a choice: You can either
(a) Read my entire review of this film via the first link above
(b) Then read my longer blog article on the films of Gareth Edwards
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own review of Monsters, hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix.
Oh, and (f) There’s a link above to Volume 4 of my exhaustive 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon and where you’ll find my review of Monsters. All FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of this absurd idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
"Kill List" (2011) - Read Along
"Amsterdam" (2022) - Read Along