Monstrous

Monstrous

Laura, traumatized by an abusive relationship, runs away from her former husband with her seven-year-old son Cody. But in their new, idyllic and remote sanctuary, they find they have another, bigger and more terrifying monster to deal with…

  • Released: 2022-05-13
  • Runtime: 89 minutes
  • Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thrillers
  • Stars: Christina Ricci, Santino Barnard, Don Baldaramos, Colleen Camp, Lew Temple, Carol Anne Watts, Peter Hodge, Nick Vallelonga, Sally Elbert, Rachael Edlow, Philip V. Bruenn
  • Director: Chris Sivertson
 Comments
  • alannapower - 30 January 2024
    No one guessed the twist, they just can't admit it
    People are like "I guessed it", it was "predicable". I'm really good at guessing movies, and I was thrown all over. I mean I had one guess then it would throw me for a loop again. It's hard to find movies I don't guess right away, but the thing with this one is it had so many different loops. It was good.

    Im going to discuss the ending because I noticed so many people got it wrong.

    For some reason people keep forgetting this part. They give you the clue of her finding the grandmas spell book. Then she talks about the ghost she sees around the house with her grandma. We assume they are clairvoyants in some way. Her gram is a witch.

    So, because of the spell she was doing and the ghost talk, it's assumed that she sees her son's spirit and refuses to let him go. At first, her son doesn't fully understand until he talks to the grim reaper, that takes the form of the grandma or is the grandma (not sure on that), and finds out he's truly dead. He tries to get her to talk to her, but she refuses.

    Yes, she is delusional, so she creates this world in her head, but she does see him. It's in the 50's because her grandma said her time was better than it is now. It's really the year 2022.

    They give us more clues with the birthday invitations and the fact no one else is seeing him, there is always an excuse on her part to herself.

    Finally, her delusions start breaking down and she sees the house for what it really is. She walks in to see her son standing in the run down grimy house. The delusion being gone. He tells her that she can't hold his spirit there any longer and that he has to pass on. She finally gives in and the last of the delusion of seeing "death" as a monster, shows that it's not a monster after all and really her grandma ready to take his spirit to the other side.

    I thought it was pretty obvious but most people ignored the main clue of the spell book scene.
  • imcharleen - 5 April 2023
    Not horror
    So, I went into this movie assuming there was some kind of monster or paranormal horror aspect going on. There was not.

    The movie centers around Ricci's mental instability, but you don't find that out until the very end. So, the whole movie ends up being about her interacting with her already dead son, whom she believes is still alive and in her mind, they're set in the 1950's because I assume that's her idea of the "ideal" time to live in.

    I kept looking for a relationship between Ricci's son and the lake monster, of which there is never a relationship explained or inferred. Her son died in a pool, and now suddenly a lady/lake monster is here to take her already gone son from her. Makes no sense, and seems to be chosen at random. Even if this were Ricci's mind making up this "monster" there is no connection made in the movie that would lead you to understand why she would have chosen a lake monster. The closest thing I can think of would just be the connection of water (her son dying in a pool, and then being dragged to the afterlife by a being originating from water).

    Anyway, I loved Ricci's acting, and the costumes and scenery design were beautiful, but the actual story was terrible. Could have been really good if they had just made a better connection between the son dying and Ricci's character actually coming to terms with it in a way that made sense instead of a random lake monster.