Melissa Barrerra and Tommy Dewey find love in writer-director Caroline Lindy’s monster romance. Here’s our review of Your Monster.
Young actor Laura (Melissa Barrera) isn’t doing too well. Not only has she just had cancer-related surgery, forcing her to move into her childhood home that’s been vacated by her mother, she’s also been dumped by her boyfriend who’s recast her role in his upcoming musical. Oh, and she has a monster living in her closet.
This is the starting line of writer-director Caroline Lindy’s monster mishmash, Your Monster, which borrows heavily from Beauty And The Beast, with a sprinkling of Midsommar. Just as Ari Aster’s Sweden-set horror was secretly a break-up movie, Your Monster is a horror-romantic-comedy-musical about finding your voice after the end of a relationship.
Monster (Tommy Dewey) has lurked in Laura’s closet since her childhood, but now she’s older, an unlikely relationship begins to form between the two. Monster helps Laura to heal, both physically and emotionally as he helps her to not accept bad treatment by others.
Your Monster leans more into comedy than its story’s horror elements, but Lindy shows her claws with a wacky finale. Your Monster is also surprisingly mature in its romance elements. The burgeoning relationship between Laura and Monster is hot and heavy once it gets going and Lindy avoids being too sentimental.
The film’s biggest issue is just how unlikeable Laura often is. On one hand, it’s quite refreshing to see a woman take control of her life so quickly, but at the same time, she treats her friends awfully and Lindy fails to make her into a fully three-dimensional character. While the film’s themes are relatable, it’s sometimes hard to identify with Laura specifically.
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It’s not Barrera’s fault though. Your Monster sees the actor let loose and try new things, often to great success. The role of Laura is weird and wonderful, wacky and chaotic and Barrera excels in it all. Dewey is also competent as the Monster, even if he doesn’t often feel all that threatening.
There’s a lot going on in Your Monster. It’s based on Lindy’s short of the same name and it often feels like the narrative is bursting at the seams from all the themes, genres and characters Lindy introduces. The director admittedly struggles to make everything work, but her ambition is impressive. A particularly affecting scene takes place in the middle of the film as Monster tells Laura she doesn’t deserve to be treated so badly by her ex, not then and not now.
There’s a lot to like in Your Monster and Lindy’s film is so close to coming together. The finale is when things really click into place and the film cashes in on those promises of horror, but by then, it may be too little, too late.
Your Monster is in UK cinemas from the 29th November.
