2010’s Monsters gave us a very different type of monster movie that focused more on the human element, and it also helped to accelerate Gareth Edwards’ career.
What Is It?
This film takes place six years after a NASA probe returns to Earth carrying large, squid-like alien creatures who clash with humans and have since taken over a large part of Mexico along the U.S. border. It focuses on a reporter named Andrew Kaulder who is tasked with returning the daughter of his newspaper’s owner (Samantha “Sam” Wynden) to the United States after she narrowly escapes an alien attack while in Mexico. At first this seems like a relatively simple request, but after Kaulder is robbed and loses Sam’s passport and ferry ticket back to the States, they must rely on the locals to help them traverse the dangerous “infected zone” in northern Mexico in order to get to the border.
Cast: Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able
Crew: Gareth Edwards (Writer/Director), Jon Hopkins (Music)
Original Release: October 29, 2010
Legacy:
Monsters gave Gareth Edwards his start directing, and it delivers an interesting take on the monster-movie format, focusing more on the human element and the implied threat of the titular creatures.
A Closer Look
Not only did this movie gave Gareth Edwards his directorial debut, he also served as writer, cinematographer, production designer, and visual effects artist. He put it together for a budget of around half a million dollars, and he worked with mostly local non-actors in Mexico, getting them to improvise most of their parts. And the two leads, McNairy and Able, did not have a hard script to work from either. Instead, they relied on just a loose paragraph for each sequence outlining the main plot points, and the actors improvised their dialogue based on that. The settings, which often showed bleak devastation, were actual locations in Mexico that they filmed without prior permission (I assume most of these were from areas ravaged by several of the hurricanes that had hit Mexico a few years prior to filming). This all makes for an authentic and, at times, documentary-like feel to the film that hearkens back to similar movies like District 9 and Cloverfield. But it takes neither the full-on documentary approach of the former nor the found-footage style of the latter, following a more traditional narrative, from the audience perspective at least.
Monsters is a fairly linear film that does not take too many twists and turns, but it also does not quite take the story directly to the conclusion that the audience likely expects. In addition, it does not rely on placing the main characters in one perilous predicament after the next, and it also thankfully eschews the jump-out-and-scare-you gimmick so overused in monster/horror films. Instead, it builds its tension through the knowledge that an ominous peril lurks nearby, and it relies on the less gratuitous suggestion of the terror more often than its actual manifestation. We do get to see a few glimpses of the monsters and what they are capable of, but for most of the film we know they are off-screen but never far away.
Some viewers may find themselves put off by the two lead characters, seeing as they come off as shallow, vapid people throughout much of the film. And I have a hard time believing that Sam would not have been furious at Kaulder for his bonehead move that resulted in the loss of her passport and ferry ticket out of the country. But we do learn more about these two as the movie progresses, especially at the very end, and at least some of the pieces of the puzzle seem to fit together by that point.
Monsters also tries to make a statement and definitely has something to say about illegal immigration from Mexico and the condition of the people currently living there as well as their perspectives on the United States. But it’s not quite as overly political as District 9, nor is the message really all that clear. Any grand statements intended by the film find themselves obscured in the narrative, but the movie does provide some interesting observations interspersed between its monster-movie elements. And you can pretty much take the commentary or leave it, but what I found more shocking were the actual images of a dilapidated Mexico used to depict this post-invasion world.
(WARNING: The following paragraph contains major spoilers; skip to avoid.) It was toward the end of the film, as Kaulder and Sam crossed the border, that I really felt its true impact. Up until that point, their whole perspective assumed that the aliens were contained in Mexico. But when they found that the creatures had crossed the border into the United States, the nature of the threat really hit home. This delivered the “Oh Wow!” moment of the film for me. Unfortunately, the final part that followed fell flat. I assume that Edwards was trying to suggest that the aliens were not the threat others assumed them to be. And perhaps Sam’s comment that she did not want to go home was supposed to emphasize that point (and/or consummate the romantic side story that had been building through the film). But those last few minutes felt more muddled to me than anything and came close to derailing what had been shaping up into a fine movie.
Still, Monsters delivers, for the most part, a decent piece of filmcraft, despite its few shortcomings and occasional lapses. And this shows once again that good science fiction does not need a blockbuster-sized budget or an excess of CGI to deliver a stand out movie.
The Story Continues:
A sequel to Monsters came out in 2014 titled Monsters: Dark Continent, but Gareth Edwards was only involved as executive producer at that point because he had been promoted to work on a reboot of the big-name monster Godzilla. Dark Continent took place ten years after the events of the first movie, but it did not bring back the original leads, instead focusing on four U.S. Army soldiers encountering the creatures in the Middle East. This film was considered a poor follow-up to Monsters, and it received mostly negative reviews from critics and viewers while also performing poorly at the box office. Edwards has since shown some interest in returning to the world he created, but he has no plans to produce a direct sequel that carries on the story of the original leads because he believes that film delivered a complete story. There were talks several years ago of a television series that Edwards was apparently not involved with, but nothing has developed on that front.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Hollywood has been known to reboot properties within a fairly short time frame (i.e., The Fantastic Four twice, and the upcoming Wheel of Time reboot), and I could see where they may have an interest in doing a big-budget version of Monsters. But that pretty much cancels out everything that the original accomplished because much of what makes it such a good film is the minimalist approach that Edwards took. Sure, a reboot might do a little better job with the ending, but at the same time, it may ruin the journey up to that point with too much in-your-face CGI. So perhaps it is best to leave this one alone and let Edwards do another movie or two in the same universe.
Interesting Facts:
Before directing major Hollywood films, Edwards had a background in visual effects. He personally handled much of the CGI work on Monsters using consumer-grade software and a small workstation setup, helping to keep the costs down.
Many scenes were filmed guerrilla-style as the production traveled through Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Belize with a very small crew. Rather than securing expensive permits and large sets, the filmmakers often shot in real locations and incorporated whatever was available into the story.
Where Can You Watch It?
This film has been released on Blu-ray, and you can purchase it VOD. It is currently available to stream for free (with ads) at The Roku Channel and Tubi TV.
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