Apparently not a great delegator, Gareth Edwards not only wrote and directed this, his feature debut, he is also cinematographer and effects creator to boot. And an impressive debut it is too. A great looking Sci-Fi movie that is more than the sum of its parts.
When a NASA expedition crash lands in the Mexican dessert, it precipitates a national disaster as it spills its contraband cargo of alien eggs. Fast forward 6 years and the area, now known as ‘The Infected Zone’ is overrun with angry alien monsters who appear to be breeding. Enter photographer Andrew (Scoot McNairy) and his boss’s daughter Samantha (Whitney Able). Andrew is charged with getting Samantha safely back to the US, to resume her ‘perfect life’. The film is as much about their developing relationship as it is about aliens, as they discover that a shared experience can create an incredible bond of intimacy. Like all good Sci-Fi movies, Monsters can be read on many levels; a love story, a treatise on imperialism, slavery, immigration, war. There is a strong feeling of human culpability- we brought the creatures here, they didn’t invade us. And our efforts to contain them involve the incidental bombing and gassing of Mexican civilians. The theme of profiteering from misery is also strong. Samantha asks Andrew about photographing the carnage, ‘don’t you feel bad, that you need something bad to happen to profit from it?’ ‘What?’ he replies, ‘Like a doctor?’ but the humour belies a serious point, reiterated when we watch them get ripped off by the ferry official, happy to make a buck from the desperation of others. So men are monsters too.
When we finally get up close and personal with the aliens, Andrew doesn’t reach for his camera, he watches with the blinkers off, and is finally able to see into the heart of things, and into his own heart. Monsters is one of those rare things, a low budget movie that stands head and shoulders above most of its more expensive counterparts.
Showing @ Filmhouse 18th June 22.15 and 19th June 18.00