There’s a Monster, the supernatural horror film on a low budget by writer-director Mike Taylor is now available on VOD. There’s a Monster is deeply personal for Taylor who loosely bases it on his own family’s experiences and stars Joey Collins as Jack, an experienced portrait photographer working out of a small studio that has just started gaining traction.
At first glance, we see that Jack has some troubles his wife Carol (Ena O’Rourke) has been giving him the cold shoulder since he did her wrong at some point in the past. Meanwhile, makeup artist Suzy (MerryRose Howley), is young and eager to swoop in. To his credit, Jack turns her down before his assistant Billy (Jesse Milliner) catches them embracing. This tension seems like juicy material for the larger themes of the film to get their hooks into or any themes really but disappointingly little comes from it beyond setting up Jack to make amends with Carol later on. It would have been interesting if Suzy had played a bigger role in acts two and three, even if it were just as an empathetic coworker or secondary foil who confronts Carol about halfway through the movie when she realizes Jack isn’t going to leave his wife for her after all. Instead, she fades away into the background as Jack gets bigger gigs at his studio.
The real antagonist of the film doesn’t show its face until pretty far in once Suzy has become irrelevant again already. While Jack does his daily routine during daylight hours there is something lurking around behind him at first very distant, but closer and closer as it becomes more involved with every part of Jack’s life each day passes by. The effect of this shadow reminded me mostly of those freaky things Mike Flanagan did in Absentia except this one was just flat black figure brushed out instead of Flanagan’s practical stand-in stuff; which worked better in some scenes than others it’s much easier for the figure to blend into the background when the rest of the frame is shrouded in darkness, like later on when Jack goes for runs through those wooded paths, but in broad daylight its silhouette stands out too much to elicit any kind of surprise from viewers.
The consequences of the monster finally reaching Jack are even worse than we could have imagined. On first contact his voice goes slack and muffled. On second, he loses his ability to hold things with his hand. The effects this monster has on Jack’s body are sudden and seemingly permanent which is by far the scariest part about it all. And yet nobody seems willing or able to help him. No matter who he turns to or what he says about what’s happening no one believes him or can do anything leaving jack alone with this terrifying thing growing inside him
There’s a Monster is a short film, running at 82 minutes. But even at this length, the characters can seem like they’re stalling. The dialogue is unimportant perhaps most so when Jack tells David what he’s realized about his tormentor: “I call it a monster.” It’s not a line that kills the tone, but there are many ways to say the same thing either more naturally or more quickly.
As far as feature-length movies go, There’s a Monster leaves something to be desired in terms of pacing and narrative dead ends. I think it would work better as either a short film or even just a featurette with tighter editing comes greater opportunity for sustained tension and urgency. This would also allow for the characters to feel more connected to each other instead of operating within their own bubbles only linked by their relationship to Jack. It’s clear that this movie was made with love and addresses an issue rarely talked about in such open terms. Its slow burn might not attract casual viewers but could be worth checking out for those who connect with its theme.
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