‘Your Monster’ Review
Stars: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Meghann Fahy, Kayla Foster | Written and Directed by Caroline Lindy
What happens if you fall in love with the monster under your bed? That’s the question posed by darkly funny fantasy rom-com Your Monster, the debut feature from writer-director Caroline Lindy.
Melissa Barrera stars as Laura Franco, a wannabe actress who’s dumped by her theatre director boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) while she’s recovering from surgery after cancer (that part, at least, is based on Lindy’s own real-life experience). Devastated, Laura returns to her childhood home, where she’s shocked to discover that Monster (Tommy Dewey), the creature she once saw under her bed as a child, still lives there.
Things quickly go from bad to worse for Laura – in addition to Monster gruffly giving her two weeks to leave the house, she finds out that Jacob has started production on a Broadway musical they developed together and, worse, has offered the part he once promised her to another actress (Meghann Fahy). However, Monster takes pity on Laura and encourages her to audition for Jacob, which lands her a job as an understudy to the lead.
Lindy works hard to maintain the right balance of tone for the film, landing on quirky and offbeat romantic comedy for the most part, but with darker elements that become more and more apparent. It’s fair to say that the romcom aspects work best – Laura and Monster are adorable together and the script has fun sending up various romantic comedy conventions.
However, the darkness – not least in the suggestion that Monster might be in Laura’s head, or at the very least a manifestation of her furious id – gives the film a more provocative and intriguing angle, to the point where at a certain point you start to wonder if maybe the film has been a horror movie all along.
On a similar note, Barrera’s performance plays into that idea, in that she’s not entirely sympathetic, and the film never quite clues you in as to whether she’s actually a good actress (and therefore worthy of the part she wants) or not. To that end, Barrera is smartly cast, as she has a background in both horror (Scream VII) and musicals (In The Heights), both of which serve her well here.
Your Monster‘s strongest element is the hugely entertaining chemistry between Barrera and Dewey, whose Monster is made up to strongly resemble Beast from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Dewey is a delight in the role and their every scene together is a joy, whether it’s as petulant roommates, BFFs or a couple falling in love. On top of that, Lindy knows her way around a montage sequence and the film doesn’t shy away from depicting a sex scene, even if it’s not quite as inspired as the one in that other monster romance, The Shape of Water.
In addition, Donovan is good as Jacob, although he arguably overdoes the obnoxiousness, given that Laura is still meant to be attracted to him, and there’s strong support from Fahy, while Kayla Foster has a scene-stealing turn as Mazie, Laura’s hilariously self-obsessed best friend, who also winds up in the play.
In short, Your Monster is an enjoyable blend of monster movie, rom-com, and putting-on-a-show musical, with a dark streak that could easily propel it to cult movie status. It also marks a promising debut for Caroline Lindy and it will be interesting to see what she does next.
**** 4/5
Your Monster is in UK cinemas now.
