Film Review with Robert Mann – Monsters

9th December 2010

Monsters *****

You have may noticed that there has been a lot of word of mouth going around about a particular film recently. Nothing particularly different there then but in this case the film that everyone is talking about is not some big Hollywood blockbuster but rather an ultra low budget film made by a first time British director.
Monsters – the second of what looks to be many alien themed films coming over the next year, the first being last month’s Skyline – is the latest film to follow the trend established by Paranormal Activity, having being made solely by the director without any studio interference and for a bargain budget of just $15,000, an amount that wouldn’t even get you started in Hollywood and that massively pales in comparison to the $30 million (an amount that is considered to be quite low by Hollywood standards) budget of last year’s District 9, the film with which Monsters is certain to be most readily compared, perhaps unjustly – appearances aside, it is a very different film. So, how did Brit director Gareth Edwards make a film as epic as Monsters on a budget of just $15,000? Here’s how – he shot the film with basic off the shelf video equipment, using a special adapter to attach more expensive lenses that allowed him to create a more film like look and, working with just the two main actors and a crew of just two people, he set out across Central America filming wherever he felt like and getting whoever happened to be around at the time to appear in the film and, after completing shooting, he produced the film’s impressive visual effects on his home PC with fairly standard photo-shop and effects software – Edwards is something of a visual effects whiz, having previously done digital effects for documentaries such as Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, Dive to Bermuda Triangle, Space Race, Perfect Disasters and In the Shadow of the Moon as well as TV movie Hiroshima. Visually speaking, he has definitely achieved something truly incredible with Monsters but does this film surpass the buzz, which has mostly related to what Edwards has achieved visually, in also delivering much needed depth in other areas or does it follow in the footpath of Skyline in being a film that may look good but has all the depth of a TV soap opera?

In 2009 NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples from Europa, Jupiter’s moon, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an ‘Infected Zone’. Today, the US and Mexican military still struggle to contain ‘the creatures’. Against this backdrop of war between humanity and these alien ‘monsters’ US photojournalist Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) agrees to escort his boss’s daughter Sam Wynden (Whitney Able) back to America. Forced to travel through the Infected Zone, they find themselves fighting for their very lives as they struggle to get to the safety of the US border. Along the way a connection develops between the two. But will they make it home alive and more importantly will there be a home left to make it back to?

If you go in to see Monsters expecting a film that features lots of action and flashy effects you will find yourself in for a very big disappointment. While a lot of the buzz surrounding the film ahead of its release has undoubtedly related to director Gareth Edwards’ visual effects work on this film, these visual effects are very much secondary to the true focus of the film and those that we do see tend to be rather subtle for the most part. This is a film that doesn’t need epic action sequences or flashy over the top visuals – it is epic in its own way. This isn’t so much an alien invasion film as it is a film set in the aftermath of an alien invasion – or should I say infestation. Aftermath is a key word here, in fact, us seeing far more of the aftermath of encounters with the creatures than of the creature encounters themselves – the aftermath portrays everything we need to see. The effects are never in your face, rather just there in the background creating the world against which the film’s true events take place. This is not to say that the effects don’t impress, however, as the subtlety is extremely effective and what Edwards has created with very limited resources is simply outstanding. Edwards works some real visual effects magic here, seamlessly transforming real life locations into desolate environments by dropping in derailed trains, capsized boats, crashed planes, downed helicopters, battle ravaged tanks and lots of destroyed buildings, by showing a giant fence surrounding the Infected Zone and a massive wall between the Infected Zone and the US border, by depicting military jets causing explosions far off in the distance, by showing us desolated suburban environments with dead creatures collapsed among the wreckage and simply by changing road signs. The scenes of desolation look amazing and everything looks so real, the world depicted on screen being one that is completely believable, something that is certainly helped by the fact that a lot of what we see on screen is real, which gives the film a whole extra level of authenticity. The photoshopped visuals are stunning, the CGI blending so seamlessly with the real life settings as to make it seem almost like the places seen really are like that in real life and the way Edwards takes real places and makes them fit the story is masterful. And it isn’t just these instances of CGI that impress but also the few more elaborate examples. The alien creatures may appear only sparsely but in the short time they do appear they make quite a substantial impression, being quite spectacularly realised creations, even though their design is not the most original you will have ever seen in a film such as this – they look a lot like giant squids, a lot of what we see of them being their tentacles (which, interestingly, Edwards had to create as rope when he was doing the effects as no effects software could do tentacles but could do rope). There are very few direct encounters with the creatures, us hearing them as much as we actually see them – the sounds they make being chilling enough on their own – and many encounters merely shown in the form of TV news reports – the news reports, along with several radio transmissions that we hear, being all that we see of the big picture, the primary focus being on the film’s two protagonists and their journey through the Infected Zone – and those that we do see take place in the dark, often with just the tentacles in shot – although we do get to see the creatures in their entirety on occasions as well. This is not to say that these sequences are not effective, however, as they are very intense and, almost reminiscent of Cloverfield in showing us the perspective of normal people trying to survive, they prove very chilling – the sight of a downed military jet being pulled down into a lake by a set of tentacles is particularly unnerving – and quite scary at times. It’s not just the creatures that are alien either but pretty much the entire Infected Zone which is being transformed into an alien ecosystem and a wonderfully realised one at that, featuring an array of alien plant life, which demonstrates some quite beautiful CG effects.

In addition to great effects, the film also boasts excellent cinematography. For something shot on video – a format that tends to produce dull looking images – the picture quality really is fantastic, certainly looking as though it was shot on film and, in fact, the film acquires a rather distinctive look from being shot in the format, the camerawork making great use of focus and delivering some highly evocative imagery and some very beautiful cinematography – a shot where sunset light is reflected on the water is a particularly captivating and stunning piece of camerawork. Additionally, the handheld camerawork gives the film a realistic edge and a raw look, something which aids the realism on display. The film may have been opportunistically shot – i.e. shot with no specific advanced planning, rather just made up as they went from location to location – but it all comes together so perfectly that you probably won’t be able to tell. This is a testament to both the strength and versatility of the storyline and the terrific editing and composition work, all done by Edwards himself. The film’s action mostly takes place in the background, the main events being purely character based stuff. At its heart this is a love story set against the backdrop of an alien ravaged environment rather than a full on sci-fi film. The only backstory really comes in form of on screen text at the start of the film and for the duration what we are really seeing is a story based around the two protagonists rather than the alien creatures. Don’t be mislead by the title – this isn’t a film about a monsters, it’s a film about people. Who are the real monsters – the creatures (who really seem more like untamed wild animals than thinking alien beings) or us? A well written screenplay provides a strong storyline – even though we know roughly where things are headed because the opening scene is actually the end of the story we are still emotionally invested in the journey of the characters – good dialogue and well established characters, creating a real sense of tragedy throughout and strong emotional resonance, things that make the film as believable as it is engaging. Like with ‘Skyline’ the focus is on the little people but unlike that film the setting is not limited to one rather uninteresting location, the scale is actually quite epic in its way and the characters are ones who we actually can be interested in. This can, of course, be attributed as much to the actors as to Edwards himself and the film really is carried by excellent performances from both of the two leads. Scott McNairy and Whitney Able apparently fell in love for real during filming so the chemistry we see between them on screen is actually real not acted, something that really adds to the authenticity of the film, their chemistry on screen being excellent and thus the developing relationship between their characters proving entirely convincing. Out of everyone we see in the film, the only actual actors are McNairy and Able. Everyone else is just people who happened to be around at the time. You might think that this would result in the rest of the cast not being any good but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The use of real Mexican people proves very effective and authentic with everyone seeming completely believable. Believability is something that really makes this film stand out. There is nothing that happens in this film that doesn’t seem plausible if such a situation were ever to arise in reality and, with apparent subtexts, this is a film that proves every bit as interesting as it is convincing. So, Monsters may be a rather slow paced film but it is also a very rewarding one and quite a haunting viewing experience. If Gareth Edwards can do this for $15,000, someone give him $15 million, hell even $150 million and watch him work some visual effects magic on a blockbuster scale.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

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