Monsters
Cinema Nova, 25/11/2010
Status: Behind by 6 and a half films
Calling Monsters a horror movie is like calling Moon a sci-fi or Lost in Translation a drama. It has elements in it that are common to horror films, sure, but the tone and rhythm of it are something else entirely.
Aliens live among us – gigantic walking cephalopods who migrate annually across northern Mexico to breed. It’s a dangerous time to be in Mexico, but Kaulder (SCOOT McNAIRY) is a professional photographer trying to the photo that’ll earn him the big bucks. He is shanghaied into bringing his boss’s daughter Sam (WHITNEY ABLE) back to the States after she is wounded in an encounter with an alien. They hurry across the Infection Zone by bus, boat, train, ute and foot before the border is closed.
I loved the tone of this slow, thoughtful, moody film as the relationship between Kaulder and Sam develops to a stunning soundtrack by Jon Hopkins. Writer-director GARETH EVANS has a great respect for his actors and trusts them with long shots and stretches without dialogue.
If you’re looking for a conventional horror or monster movie, this ain’t it. But that’s probably why I liked it so much.
