Monsters (2010)

Director: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able, Mario Zuniga Benavides

Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion, a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.

‘Monsters’. Ok, so I was expecting to see monsters in this film. Maybe it should have been called ‘On our way home we saw a few monsters’ – a few!!

‘Monsters’ is essentially a drama illustrating the effects on people after an alien invasion, and how they adapt to what has become the norm: fearing creature attacks. It is not so much a movie about monsters or aliens, as you literally only get to see them three or four times during the course of the film. It is a film about overcoming obstacles in an attempt to get home. There’s very little action and very little suspense. There literally is more drama than anything else, and mainly between two characters, Andrew and Sam (Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able). There relationship is predictable, though.

The film features good, natural acting, very good editing and good photography. It was beautiful to see so much emotion in the characters, and the score was subtle and effective. This is a very different kind of monster movie. If you go into this expecting a monster-driven movie, you’re bound to be disappointed. I wasn’t really all that disappointed with the movie, but I was disappointed with the abrupt ending that just left the film hanging.

‘Monsters’ had a tiny budget of only $500,000, and earned its budget more than eight-fold, earning over $4 million. It won awards for Best International Film, Best First Film, Best Achievement in Production, Best Technical Achivement, Best Director and Best Independent Movie, among others.

Would I watch it again? No.