Monsters (2010) - Edwards' fascinating, impressive guerilla filmmaking debut

♥♥♥♥

 

2 Film Excess nominations:

Best Lead Actress: Whitney Able (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)
Best Digital Effects (lost to Alice in Wonderland)

 

+ Best Monster Movie of the Year

+ Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year

 

Above the title on this poster for Gareth Edwards' Monsters is the film's cool tagline

Years after an alien invasion, the giant monsters have been interned in South America, where an American photographer is now given the assignment to get his boss' daughter back to the States. But the road is long and full of obstacles...

Monsters is based on an unusual, exciting and original idea: It is an ultra-low budget giant creature feature without the mass destruction scenes the subgenre has grown us accustomed to but scoring on other parameters. The story is driven by a special, terrific mood stemming from all the action taking place in a world that has restructured after the fact of the alien coming, a world that is post great ideals; the collapse has, on more than one front, already happened.
The chemistry and dynamic between the two fine leads, portrayed by now married Scoot McNairy (Gone Girl (2014)) and Whitney Able (Mercy (2009)), who is especially wonderful, is gold to the film. It was made in a real guerilla filmmaking spirit (read more below), and this is reflected in the sense of realism and truthfulness of the film, which is rarely found in its mega-budgeted cousins.
Some may feel themselves led on by the film's title, because the film really doesn't show too many monsters at all. Besides the qualities already mentioned, Monsters also has a strong, surprising ending and some very well-made CGI.
It is the feature debut for great British writer-director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla (2014)), who won the latter, mega-budgeted giant creature feature directing gig based on this impressive film.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 0.5 mil. $

Box office: 4.2 mil. $

= Huge hit

[Monsters premiered March 13 (SXSW, Austin, Texas) and runs 94 minutes. Edwards had wanted to make a giant creature feature for more than a decade, getting derailed by War of the Worlds and Cloverfield. The film was shot with only a treatment with almost all of its lines getting improvised during production and most of the extras getting played by willing strangers the crew met on their adventure. Filming took place in America, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Mexico in just 3 weeks with a total crew of 7 people. 100 hours of footage was edited down, and Edwards created the film's CGI effects himself in 5 months in his bedroom. The film opened #54 in just 3 theaters to a 20k $ first weekend, expanding to 25 theaters and grossing 237k $ (5.6 % of the total gross) in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were the UK with 1.44 mil. $ (34.3 %), Russia with 1.40 mil. $ (33.3 %) and Mexico with 463k $ (11 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars, equal to one notch better than this review. It was nominated for 6 awards at the British Independent Film Awards, winning Best Director, Best Technical Achievement and Best Achievement in Production. Edwards was also nominated as Best Director's Debut at the BAFTAs, but didn't win. A sequel, Monsters: Dark Continent (2015), was made without the direct involvement of the creators of Monsters and flopped. Monsters is fresh at 72 % with a 6.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Monsters?