Monster - Jennifer Kent from Jennifer Kent on Vimeo.
A single mother battles her son's fear of a monster in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
Synopsis
A single mother (Susan Prior) has to deal with the dreariness of life and her son's, Samuel (Luke Ikimis-Healey), insistence on fighting the mysterious monster living in their house. She discovers the monster is a strange doll with long hair. Samuel claims the doll is real and plans to eat him. His mother tries to convince Samuel the doll isn't real and it can't hurt him. He doesn't believe her. She hides the doll in the closet under the stairs in hopes doing so will put an end to her son's monster fighting. Instead, his mother discovers Samuel was right about the doll. The Monster (Trash Vaudeville) makes his appearance at bedtime to claim Samuel. Will his mother be able to save him?
Director and writer Jennifer Kent later adapted Monster into her 2014 feature film The Babadook.
My Thoughts
Monster is a well crafted short film. However, I wish there was a little more background information presented in Monster. Where did the supernatural doll come from? A doll which shape-shifts into a supernatural monster wouldn't be a common item. Perhaps the doll is a common one sold in stores, and the Monster found one of the dolls and simply attached himself to it. That would be a good way for him to find new children to eat. What kind of problems was the mother dealing with? I wonder about that mainly due to the fact the boy seems quite a bit happier than her. On the other hand, he's quite young, so it makes sense his mother wouldn't burden him with too many of her problems.
In The Babadook, the mother is dealing with the death of her husband. The mother in Monster could be dealing with a similar situation. Susan Prior is great as the mother. She infuses her character with a sense of hopelessness and depression. She's also frustrated with her son's behavior. You can tell she loves Samuel, but she doesn't like his monster fighting. At the end, when she stands up to the Monster in order to protect her son, you see her change from being someone wrapped up in her own problems to someone who will do anything to protect her child.
Monster was shot in black and white. The choice of colors (or lack thereof depending on your view) increases the film's feelings of loneliness and depression. It also makes the encounters with the Monster creepier. The Monster reminds me a bit of Edward Scissorhands. His fingers aren't as long as the blades on Edward's hands, though.
To find out more about Monster and Jennifer Kent, check out:
Jennifer Kent's IMDB
Monster IMDB
Jennifer Kent's Vimeo
No comments:
Post a Comment
Phobophiliacs promotes constructive communication and debate. However, Phobophiliacs reserves the right to remove any comment that is a personal attack, promotional, generally rude, contains personal information, or doesn't contribute to the topic of the post. No anonymous comments allowed. All comments go through a moderation process. Thank you for following the rules!