‘Your Monster’ Review: Melissa Barrera Finds Musical Ways To Scream Her Rage With Help From A Beastly Tommy Dewey
Just as its female lead is letting her inner rage come bubbling to the surface, the movie Your Monster, about this young woman, is also crying out from the inside to become a full-blown Broadway musical and not just the cult midnight movie it inevitably will be.
A sometimes awkward combo of horror/rom-com/musical elements that don’t always mesh perfectly but still blend well enough makes writer-director Caroline Lindy’s own feature-length adaptation of her short film a fun ride, as well as a terrific showcase for its stars Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey. In some ways it is also reminiscent of the current Demi Moore-Margaret Qualley horror comedy The Substance from director Coralie Fargeat, which also finds its main character going deep into herself in order to change the trajectory of her life all the way to a desperate and stunning denouement on a theatrical stage (albeit in wildly different ways). Maybe these ambitious and inventive female-driven horror comedies are a trend?
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Barrera (Scream) is Laura, an aspiring musical-theater actress who gets a devastating cancer diagnosis and lands in the hospital where, while recovering, gets the gut-wrenching blow that her longtime boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) has decided to dump her. This is devastating stuff, made even worse by the fact this stage director-writer has decided to cast another woman, Jackie Dennon (Meghann Fahy), in the role Laura helped Jacob develop for herself to play, her big break. After getting out of the hospital, Laura returns to her childhood home to fully recover when out of the closet she meets Monster (Dewey), a fury creature-like human (think Beauty and the Beast) whose unattractive physicality is canceled out by an engaging, witty, encouraging personality, a being who coaches Laura to bring out her inner rage and demand better for herself. Their relationship grows as Laura confronts herself, and later Jacob, soon becoming the understudy — a small consolation that leads to more than one ugly meltdown with her ex during rehearsals, even as she and Monster bond even closer.
This is a fun concept, one that is oddly wildly romantic, but more importantly one that signals the coming-of-(a new) age, and rage for Laura, who will simply not accept Jacob’s callous actions even if she still might succumb to him against the advice of a disappointed Monster. The story heads into unexpected directions, a more fierce and darker place than the often playful tone the filmmaker has set, but she has also laid clues this is a woman not quite done with her payback.
Yes, it is horror. Yes, it is comedy, Yes, it is romantic. Yes, it is dramatic. But also YES it is a mini-musical with some catchy Broadway-ready tunes written by The Lazours, with a bouncy score provided by Tim Williams. The soundtrack overall is killer, and Barrera surprisingly proves her musical chops, belting out her numbers with confidence and style. At times her character is forced to overplay and shout a bit too much, but Barrera makes Laura someone we can’t take our eyes away from, and someone to root for even at her most intense moments. Dewey, in his beastly makeup, proves to be a first-rate romantic lead, and like Beauty and the Beast, we want him to hook up with Laura, even as a symbol of what and who she is from the inside. Dewey, so good currently in Saturday Night as Michael O’Donoghue, gets a juicy role and proves a perfect counterpoint to Barrera’s breakdowns. Great chemistry here. Fahy (The White Lotus Season 2) is also fine as the person who “steals” the role Laura craves, but is sympathetic and winning in the end. Donovan is sufficiently unlikable enough to make Jacob a bit of a villain, but he’s a recognizable creep more interested in his show than the feelings of his ex.
Your Monster, which premiered to good reaction at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is not exactly a typical Halloween-season horror film where its distributor has placed it, but like a Rocky Horror Picture Show it has the stuff to eventually find an appreciative audience that just might be bowled over by its sheer originality and quirky message of finding our inner self, for better or worse. And don’t be surprised to see Broadway calling.
Producers are Lindy, Kayla Foster, Kira Carstensen, Melanie Donkers and Shannon Reilly.
Title: Your Monster
Distributor: Vertical
Release date: October 25, 2024 (theatrical)
Director-screenwriter: Caroline Lindy
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster, Meghann Fahy, Brandon
Victor Dixon, Ike Ufomadu, Lana Young
Rating: R
Running time: 1 hr 42 mins
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