Monsters

It’s the near future; Mexico has become quarantined, populated by giant squid like alien creatures, an area referred to as the “Infected Zone”. This came about when a NASA space probe carrying alien life forms crashes, infecting large part’s of Central America. Two young Americans Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy), a freelance photographer looking for ”that picture” that will make him rich and famous, and the daughter of a successful magazine publisher Samantha Wynden (the hugely attractive Whitney Able) get stranded south of the Zone at the start of the alien’s most active and therefore most dangerous period. To get back to the States they are forced to cross the Zone.

The hugely attractive Whitney Able

Monsters (2010) is the debut feature film of British director Gareth Edwards, whose experience lies with special effects. He originally planned to shot this film as a documentary but decided to turn it into a drama.  Shot entirely on location in Mexico, Costa Rica and Texas over a three week period reportedly without asking permission in advance, using locals as extras and transporting a seven person crew, including the two largely unknown actors, around in a van. With very clever postproduction work done by Edwards, its sci-fi that’s totally realistic grounded in the real world and does not reflect its low budget. This excellent thriller is not your normal gore-fest horror movie being far more subtle than that. There’s great chemistry between the two leads that are incidentally married in real life! Edwards’s best CGI moments are the great wall of America and the full view shots of the aliens as the film draws to an end. The films basic premise takes nothing away from your enjoyment of the film, go see this movie even if your not a sci-fi horror fan pretend it’s a rom-com and you won’t be disappointed.