LOVE AND MONSTERS | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Michael Matthews (12, 110 mins)
An enjoyable monster B-movie that feels like a lost 80s family horror film, with winning performances and a witty script. Dylan O’Brien is excellent as Joel, our worried, anxious hero, hiding out in an underground bunker as monsters try and break in. The monsters are creepy-crawly hybrids, made gigantic following an attempt to save Planet Earth from a rogue asteroid. The asteroid was destroyed but the genetic fallout caused by the explosion fell back to earth and mutated certain species who subsequently wiped out 95% of mankind.
All this is told in an entertaining animated fashion, using Joel’s drawings. Mankind has been living in fear, underground or in remote outposts, for seven years now, and it’s been seven years since Joel has seen his girlfriend Aimee (Iron Fist’s Jessica Henwick). She is in an outpost 85 miles away; the pair have been communicating by radio and summoning his inner hero. Joel decides to go to her, much to his group’s disbelief: he’s hardly an action hero.
Nevertheless, powered by romance, Joel ventures above ground, encountering a fantastic dog called Boy – who gives a wonderful canine performance, kudos to the two dogs who played him and the trainers. He also encounters a grizzled survivalist with a heart of gold, Clyde (the great Michael Rooker), and his rough-and-ready young companion Minnow, a winning, funny Arianna Greenblatt. They help him recognize monsters, learn some tricks of the trade and how to aim his makeshift crossbow. Will he get to his girlfriend in one piece? And what awaits him there?
The story doesn’t go the way you might think, but it’s done with wit and charm. Admittedly, there are a couple of plot holes and nods to formula, but O’Brien papers over them with a believable, funny and moving performance, proving adept at misfit zingers, dog handling and showing the impact of real loss. The monsters are inventively gooey and disgusting and have real menace, being many-toothed and pus-filled, but full of character. The threat is not toned down and the proceedings are peppered with laughs in a way that recalls creature features like Tremors or Arachnophobia. A thoroughly enjoyable surprise.
Out now via Netflix
words KEIRON SELF