Review of the film ‘Monstrous’ (2022)

 

Laura is a single mother that moves with her kid Cody to a typical town from the 1950s, searching for a new life away from her husband. Soon Laura begins noticing that something strange is happening in their isolated house, and that there is a ghostly presence in the nearby pond.

The story makes it clear from the beginning that things are not really what they appear to be, then the script stretches it in more ways than one, and the direction from Chris Sivertson gives the film intense colours and an iconic appearance from the 1950s, including classical songs, making everything surreal and disbelievable.

The mix of of horror with a surreal atmosphere fails, but then the whole set of story, script and direction was doomed from the start. If you jump to the data sheet at the end of this review, you will read there ‘Genre: Drama’. That’s right, the horror in this film is no more than a bait to engage new audiences – in a way, the film is a single, long jump scare. The drama is good, but the mix is bad: too much horror for drama, and too much drama for horror.

The reconstruction of the 1950s era is well achieved though, with good scenography, good art direction and good visual effects.

As for the acting, both Laura and Cody are opaque characters that are hard to play, but Christina Ricci and Santino Barnard manage to pull them through with good performances. Don Durrell and Lew Temple deliver good performances too, and Colleen Camp is highlighted.

All in all, a drama deceptively packaged as horror. 2 out of 5.

Title:	Monstrous
Genre:	Drama
Year:	2022
Nationality:	United States
Colour:	Colour
Director:	Chris Sivertson
Writer:	Carol Chrest
Cast:	Christina Ricci, Santino Barnard, Don Baldaramos, Colleen Camp, Lew Temple, Carol Anne Watts, Jennifer Novak Chun, Peter Hodge, Nick Vallelonga, Sally Elbert, Lola Grace, Rachael Edlow, Darin Cooper, Aimey Beer, Neraida Bega, Philip V. Bruenn, Matt Lovell, Nancy O'Fallon, Chris Mullinax, Anjoum Agrama, Olivia Reid, Kathy Sue Holtorf
Producer:	Johnny Remo, B.I. Rosen, Sasha Yelaun, Robert Yocum
Co-producer:	Kurtis Anton, Kathy Sue Holtorf, Timmy Nolan, Rob Simmons, Carol Anne Watts
Executive producer:	Ameer Abdullah, Craig Albrecht, Shanan Becker, Eric Brenner, William V. Bromiley, Colleen Camp, Reid Carpenter, Carol Chrest, Galen Christy, Debbie Cooper, Peter C. Cubba, Cristina Dam, Cameron Davies, Clay Epstein, Dylan Flashner, Adam Goldworm, Ben Good, Grant Guthrie, Mike Hatton, Brian Katz, Rob McGillivray, Larry Meistrich, G.E. Morgan, Omer Paracha, Sean Reilly, Jonathan Saba, Ness Saban, Christopher Seo, Sandra Siegal, Adam Sigal, Mark A. Silba, Chris Sivertson, Ben Stranahan, Jerry Tankersley, Kevin Taylor, Saud Al-Thani, Scott Valentine, Galen Walker, Bob Weiner, Thomas Zambeck
Production designer:	Mars Feehery
Cinematographer:	Senda Bonnet
Film editor:	Anjoum Agrama
Casting:	Krisha Bullock, Jamie Snow
Art Director:	Amanda Deprez, Ryan Martin
Set Decorator:	Taylor Jean
Costume Designer:	Morgan DeGroff
Music:	Tim Rutili
Running time:	88 minutes
Language:	English