MONSTROUS (2022)

Studio:     Screen Media
Director:    Chris Sivertson
Writer:     Carol Chrest
Producer:  Robert Yocum, Sasha Yelaun, B.I. Rosen, Johnny Remo
Stars:     Christina Ricci, Colleen Camp, Nick Vallelonga, Lew Temple, Santino Barnard

Review Score:

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Summary:

A troubled mother tries to restart her life in 1950s California where she must protect her son from a supernatural sea creature.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Leaving behind her ex-husband Scott, Laura Butler moves from Arizona to California in the 1950s with her seven-year-old son Cody. For increased privacy, Laura rents a remote farmhouse from Mr. and Mrs. Langtree, the latter of whom repeatedly treats Laura suspiciously whenever she reports something wrong with the house. Cody becomes fascinated with a pond in the backyard, which causes Laura consternation. Laura starts suffering from occasionally odd visions and begins sneaking vodka drinks.

Laura falls asleep while watching an old monster movie about a sea creature. Laura dreams she becomes the damsel in distress and is rescued by her beloved grandmother, who often comforted Laura throughout childhood. Cody wakes Laura by claiming he saw a monster outside his bedroom window.

Laura hangs up the phone when Scott calls. Laura’s mother calls to implore Laura to talk to Scott. Laura chides her mother for telling people where she went, enabling Scott to find her.

As strange experiences continue throughout the home, Laura calls her concerned doctor, who tries asking about her medication. Cody has another encounter with the creature from the pond.

Laura finds Cody drawing a picture of the sea creature, whom he identifies as the “pretty lady” from the pond. Cody claims that after the lady came to talk to him, he now understands and is no longer afraid. Cody invites Laura to meet her, but she refuses.

Laura has a frightening experience where the living room floor seemingly becomes water and she is briefly submerged. When she resurfaces, Cody asks Laura if she saw the “pretty lady.”

Laura tries confiscating one of Cody’s drawings of the lady. Cody paranormally pushes Laura against a wall. Laura asks Cody why he is angry with her, but Cody claims he cannot tell her.

Laura proposes throwing a party for Cody’s birthday. Cody insists that none of his classmates from school will come, but he asks to invite the pretty lady because she is his best friend and she promised to finally take him back home.

During another bout of paranormal activity, Laura confronts the creature/lady. Laura stabs the entity before fleeing outside with Cody. Cody pleads with his mother to talk to the lady, which leads to both of them having a tearful meltdown. Cody promises to tell the lady not to bother Laura anymore.

Laura calls Sister Agnes at Saint Mary’s Church to report a demon in her house. Sister Agnes immediately hangs up on her. Laura also asks Mrs. Langtree if any previous tenants ever reported a ghost, but Mrs. Langtree only responds with accusations about Laura being a mentally unwell drug abuser.

Scott calls again to try apologizing to Laura. Laura hangs up on Scott after vowing that he will never see her or Cody again.

No one shows up for Cody’s party. However, Laura later discovers Cody never passed out his party invitations at school like she told him to. Laura and Cody have another heated argument during which Cody momentarily stops breathing.

When Laura next goes to pick up Cody from school, she sees three girls pointing at her car. When she returns home to find Mrs. Langtree creeping around the house, the two women get into an argument that ends with Mrs. Langtree giving Laura 30 days to vacate the premises.

While drinking vodka and having more visions, Laura sees Cody wading into the pond outside. Laura dives in to rescue her son after tentacles pull him underwater.

Laura’s boss Mr. Alonzo reprimands her for poor performance at work. Alonzo also asks about Laura’s problematic drinking. Laura tells Alonzo about the monster in her house. Alonzo suggests that Laura seek professional help, which Laura refuses before suddenly quitting and storming out.

Laura goes to pick up Cody at school, but is unable to find him. Laura worriedly summons a policeman, who takes Laura to the station to meet department caseworker Barb Schiff. Barb asks Laura for details about an accident in Arizona the previous year when Cody fell into a pool. Laura explains that her ex-husband Scott failed to properly supervise the boy while she was out, but Cody was successfully revived. Barb becomes concerned.

A cellphone rings in Laura’s purse. Confused, Laura goes outside to find it is 2022, revealing she had been living in a 1950s fantasy all this time while imagining her dead son was still alive. Laura returns to the farmhouse where she finds Cody and promises to take him away like he wanted.

Laura and Cody get into a physical struggle. Cody paranormally pushes Laura away as the floor becomes water once again and Laura is submerged. When she resurfaces, Laura pleads with Cody to stay with her. Cody tearfully tells his mother that he wants to go with the pretty lady. He also tells Laura that his drowning accident wasn’t her fault. Laura and Cody embrace.

Laura escorts Cody to the pond. Finally revealed to be Laura’s grandmother, the lady emerges to take Cody underwater by hand. Laura later moves back to Arizona.

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Review:

I’ve slung snark at indie movies before for having comically absurd amounts of production company cards and executive producer credits. “Monstrous” takes the practice to a whole new level of overkill.

“Only” seven company logos appear in the initial animation sequence, although four more names are added in opening titles. Imagine the Advil required for a legal team to heal the logistical headache of properly prioritizing an order that ultimately reads: “Screen Media and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment present in association with Saban Films and Filmmode Entertainment a Burning Sky Films production in association with Red Coral Finance in partnership with Umbrelic Entertainment and with Wildfire Pictures, Scarlet Pictures, Tip Top Productions, (and) Snakebyte Productions…” I’m surprised the string doesn’t end with, “and a partridge in a pear tree.”

“Monstrous” also cites four producers, five co-producers, two co-executive producers, and get this, and this is not a typo because I counted twice just so my incredulous eyes could be absolutely certain of what they saw, 41 executive producers. I mean, holy sh*t! Never mind how “honorary” some of those EP credits might be, 52 is flat out too many producers.

As has been said many times, it takes a lot of people to make a movie. That goes for any movie, no matter how small it may seem. And finding every available nickel that can possibly be financed is an even higher mountain that requires unyielding athleticism to dauntlessly climb.

But “Monstrous” is a comparatively manageable endeavor. Two primary actors feature in most of the film while no supporting player ever appears onscreen for longer than two minutes total. Several locations are used, but the main one is a remote farmhouse on a spacious property where no one has to worry about road noise, airplanes interfering with audio, where to park equipment trucks, or where to put the generator. Although “Monstrous” includes some underwater camerawork, we’re also talking about a straightforward storyline with very few truly tricky sequences. Needing 52 producers to pull off what other projects routinely do with far fewer people should be a red flag that something isn’t being done right.

Now, before anyone goes to bat for “Monstrous” by arguing, “You try making a movie and find out how hard it is,” trust me, I do understand how difficult it can be. I’ve seen these struggles firsthand on all sorts of sets ranging from music videos and commercials to TV shows and feature films.

Yet from the perspective of a longtime film fan who pays attention to the who, what, and where that credits might reveal, I can also tell you that I’ve never seen an indie movie popularly considered to be good, let alone great, that has an above-the-line list longer than that of below-the-line crewmembers who do the actual daily labor. What’s the last worthwhile movie you saw that had a seemingly endless intro of animated logos and vanity credits? At a minimum, cobbling a movie out of piecemeal production parts is a surefire sign of corners being cut, compromises being made, and too many painters applying their brushes to the same canvas until all their colors become a grey mush, exactly as it happens with “Monstrous.”

“Monstrous” takes place in the 1950s. There’s no mistaking the era because the movie punches you in the face with this fact from the opening bell. Conspicuous close-ups of a classic Chevy’s fins. Old magazines with Mamie Eisenhower on the cover. Vintage commercial clips piping over a black and white TV. Songs like ‘Mister Sandman’ playing on the soundtrack. Take it easy on the hooks and uppercuts “Monstrous,” I get it, I get it!

Christina Ricci plays less of a character and more of a moderately cartoonish caricature of a doting mother masking psychologically instability. This means Ricci gets to employ her signature smile that suggests a simmering boil readies itself for raging underneath a perkily cheerful exterior. I’m not sure how much of her slightly kooky characterization is Ricci’s choice and how much may be mismanaged direction of the tone. Either way, Ricci is still the best thing, maybe the only good thing, about the movie.

Laura fled to California for a fresh start with her young son Cody. She wanted to break free from her ex-husband, but she may have inadvertently exchanged him for a more literal monster. Curiously, Laura becomes immediately distressed to discover the remote farmhouse she rented has a large pond outside. Laura becomes even more distressed when that pond produces a shadowy shape dressed in rags who pays regular visits to Cody. Cody eventually connects with the creature, claiming it is actually a “pretty lady” who came to take him back home. Laura doesn’t know what to believe. She does know she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her son from the creature’s clutches as she continues fighting with their past in order to forge a better future.

“Monstrous” contains a very vague theme of escaping abuse amid a trying time of marginalization for stigmatized women, except the film doesn’t contain an empathetic sense of dire danger for the non-supernatural side of Laura’s situation. We deliberately aren’t told what her husband did to make her go on the run to another state. Laura’s mother pleads with her to talk to her ex-husband. Cody claims he forgives his father. Because “Monstrous” keeps what really happened concealed, and because the movie uses the “is it real or is it all in her head?” ploy when it comes to the truth behind the paranormal activity, we have to question Laura’s unreliable mental state when it comes to the truth about her husband too. Presenting your heroine as possibly paranoid or delusional is not an advantageous position to be in for getting across a meaningful point about trauma.

The metaphors make little sense, for an abusive husband anyway, since the creature turns out to be female. What then, is Laura protecting Cody from? Once you realize that the misdirects don’t add up, the “twist” reveals itself long before “Monstrous” pulls back the curtain for its painfully predictable “Ta-da!” Carving out that mystique-less mystery leaves “Monstrous” as nothing more than a melancholy drama mixed with a stripped-down character study that’s as basic as it is dry.

“Monstrous” feels like a movie-of-the-week initially intended for Lifetime, except they didn’t want it, so someone abandoned the feeble film on a DTV doorstep. Carnivore film fans who want more meat in their meals might want to leave it there too. Pretend you didn’t see anything bustling under the blanket and hope some less savvy sucker picks up the beige basket instead.

Review Score: 40

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