MONSTERS

UK, 2010, 94 minutes, Colour.
Scott Mc Nairy, Whitney Able.
Directed by Gareth Edwards.

There certainly are monsters in this brief drama about an alien invasion but, compared with an effects-governed matinee show like Skyline, which abounds in visuals of the monsters, this is a rather more modest film, a bit more thoughtful too.

We are informed at the outset that there have been NASA explorations of outer space and that, on its return, one vehicle crashed in Mexico, letting loose a mutating virus that is monstrous and devastating to humans and to civilisation as well. (Have we forgotten all about Roswell and all those aliens by now and concentrated in the movies on variations on The War of the Worlds and Independence Day!)

While there are some visuals of the monsters, they are brief and all the more effective for that, until a final vision which is not quite what we expected.

In the meantime a journalist-photographer is asked by his boss to forego his opportunity to make a name for himself in this crisis and to accompany the boss’s daughter back to the safety of the US. We see the devastation that the monsters have wrought on cities and buildings (very effective because director, Gareth Edwards, has been working solidly in these departments for films and television for almost ten years).

This means that Monsters is more of a journey film than a horror film, although there are quite a number of episodes, especially in the Mexican jungles, that offer some tingles of terror.

The focus is on the couple and the difficulties in their journey: finding a ferry to take them to the US and the exorbitant prices, passport restraints and robberies, kindly members of an outlying village, trekking on foot with people smugglers, the decreasing number of guides.

Then you begin to wonder what the film-makers had in mind when they set the film in Mexico. On the map shown, half of Mexico, the part adjacent to the US, is seen to be the infected area. The Americans have built a huge wall, with ramparts, to keep the illegals out as they journey north to the border against difficult odds. An allegory of self-centred and xenophobic Americans and the fear of monsters and infection from south of the border? (In Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, when the northern part of the world froze, the Americans were making their way in droves to cross the Rio Grande to find safety in Mexico!)

Be that as it may, Monsters is a more ‘art-house’ terror film than a multiplex horror show.

1. The tradition of monster films? Aliens, alien creatures, their attacks? The human response?

2. The plausibility of the plot? The information about NASA, the exploration of space, bringing back the specimens, the crash-landing in Mexico, the spread of the infection? The monsters, their gigantic growth, the attacks? The destruction of the landscape, of property, of people? The infected zone? Half of Mexico cut off? The fence on the border between America and Mexico?

3. The allegorical background, Andrew and his talking about seeing the US from the outside? The crossing of the American-Mexican? border? The huge wall and its ramparts? The aliens in Mexico – and the Americans seeing the Mexicans as aliens? The illegals, the rackets, trying to guide people through the infected area to cross into the United States? The British perspective on this situation?

4. The location photography in Mexico, Guatemala, the beauty of the scenery, mountains, the coast, the ports, roads, jungle, villages?

5. The special effects, the range of buildings and their ruins? The planes and the dropping of the bombs? The creation of the creatures? A sense of realism? The special effects in action? The destruction – the end?

6. The Cloverfield-like opening, the handheld camera, black and white photography, night vision, the monsters, the troops in jeeps, the attack?

7. The transition to the realistic situation in Mexico, the bright colour and the heat, the range of destruction, the creatures threatening to break through the infected barriers? Andrew, his work, photography? Lacking Spanish? The search for the hospital, finding Sam, the phone call, her father demanding that he escort her to safety? His own personal anger, the refusal, yet following the orders?

8. Sam, her injuries, in hospital, the background story, her father? The confrontation with Andrew? Going to the railway station, the delaying phone call, the father’s demands, travelling in the train? Their talking over their lives, the situation?

9. The train stopping, getting off in the dark, discovering the village, the people and their kindness, food, the gift of clothes? Walking on the highway, the lifts?

10. The harbour, the boats, arguing with the ticket seller, the deal, five thousand dollars, going to the hotel, their talking, Sam and the shower, Andrew and his resting, ringing his son for his birthday – and the later story about his wife, their relationship, the son, the boy possibly not being his? The girl in his room, stealing the wallet and the passports? Sam’s hostile reaction?

11. The further bargaining, going in through the infected area? The deal with the man with the boat, sailing on the river, the breakdown, the appearance of the creature and the plane in the water, the menace?

12. The jungle, walking through the jungle, the guns, the group and their deaths, the attack of the monsters? The guides and their deaths? The vehicles, in the trees? The explanation of the infected trees and the spores going down the river, into the sea, spreading the infection?

13. Andrew and Sam walking, through the mountains, reaching the wall, their reactions to the wall, its being deserted, crossing into the town? The beggar and the hostile reaction?

14. The appearance of the creatures, their mating rituals, Sam and Andrew being safe? Their observing, a sense of wonder?

15. The effect on each of them, not wanting to go back home, the change, being together?

16. The troops arriving, taking them off – the sudden ending? An exclamation mark? Leaving the audience to ponder about the monsters and their origins, their effect on Earth, their menace – or not?

17. The small action sequences – the film as more of a reflection on monsters rather than a monsters and gore film?