Even if horror comedies have achieved a cult following, not all can be classified as timeless tales. There are classics such as Beetlejuice and Fright Night and then there is Tremors 4: The Legend Begins and There’s Something in the Barn. This is why it is also plausible to have a mid-sense of appreciation, as seen with Diablo Cody’s Lisa Frankenstein. This more recent film appears to be a sister film to Your Monster, which was written and directed by Caroline Lindy. Noor’s narrative read about how Beauty and the Beast might have been formulated if it were written in the late 1980s, the television series rather than the animated picture with all its humor and nightmares of aged relationship struggles, only emerging unscathed with the knowledge that true relationships evolve from the heart.
The focus of the film is on Laura Franco (played by Melissa Barrera in In the Heights) a reclusive and insecure actress who undergoes multiple life challenges and yet has the ability to maintain her head up high. Same is true for Laura, who never would have thought that the terrifying yet strangely fascinating monster ‘Tommy Dewey’ who dwells in her closet would become her answer. More often than not, expecting a multiple personality disorder from a character in a movie who destroys everything he touches while touch still managing to fall in love, is a good film premise and a film theme out of showing self love. It is a crazy romantic comedy horror film that wins over the audience with laughs and chills in equal measure.
Right from the start, you’re impressed with the narrator and filmmaker Caroline Lindy’s script which is sometimes overreliant on the sufferings of Laura, our protagonist. However, the soundtrack comes in and as they say, ‘screws the knife even deeper’ or more interestingly, hearing the likes of Georgia Gibbs’ You Can Never Get Away from Me and Brenda Lee’s Someday You’ll Want Me, struck with the rest of the heart-tugging songs is weirdly a thrill. Laura is in free fall and we understand that very clearly.
And then what are these Katies? Our drama is ‘THE MONSTER CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET!’ Oh god! As a result of her complaints about being cooped up in the same place constantly, Laura complains about being cooped within the residence for prolonged periods. I mean what? Is there someone else living with Laura? It is a fun way for the characters to meet, but it works. We are introduced to ‘one’ the Monster which right off the bat thanks to Tommy Dewey’s perfect performance.
After another one of Laura’s mini freak-outs, the couple reaches a mutual understanding about their living arrangement. It is safe to say that the two have decided to shackle themselves together but as roommates. Just like the other’s roommate comedies starting from New Girl to What We Do in the Shadows, we are taken through a story that in the end, consider these two totally different individuals having to yield and/or compromise if their arrangements are ever going to pull through. The set-up makes it easier for Laura to avoid the pain of her breakup with Jacob (Edmund Donovan from Tell Me Lies) and allow Monster to be with another person which evokes his sense of self as well.
But the story has to be more than this, otherwise us audiences would not continue watching. And in this feature film, it explores so many factors that it changes genres at every beat. The director typically executes such jarring transitions, as they sharpen the film’s eccentric style. It might be one of those things you have to get used to. You know, there’s a stage musical that has to be put up, and as its pompous director, Jacob is quite involved. So this is how you are introduced to a stage musical film with irony. Still, more entertaining than just with lots of cosplay.
The perspective changes once more when Monster decides to ditch his domestic beastly non chores and attend a Halloween costume bash where Laura has been invited. He put the word ‘safe’ in inverted commas because in his view, the only thing perhaps better, is seeing Laura as the girl dressed as bride of Frankenstein. Apart from Jacob, Laura also has a rival in the form of Mazie (Kayla Foster), who goes around claiming to be a best friend, this girl could be such a nuisance during the course of events that take place in this chapter.
But is Monster terrifying? Most of the times he is. There’s a comedic part of the story when Laura witnesses the real force of this monster and the tragedy of such a beast. This is sufficient to scare away her dystopic worries of existence, but Laura prefers to cling on to such Ideologies. Such melancholic ponder is so endeared in the drama that at times, it seems the film is about to drown in the sad device completely. Still, there’s a lot of pleasure in witnessing how it’s unfolded and what the resolution, if any, is.
Naturally, Laura and Monster come to the realization that they have come to care for one another. But is this feeling of love beyond friendship (and more than just Monster being an extension of her turmoil)? It is in this instance that our two main actors really shine, stone cold imitating the very annoying will they/won’t they, romantic comedy, which lingers throughout the rest of the film. Look at how everyone gets it to work so well in Lisa Frankenstein: And something similar can be found here, except that this film somehow seems to save its best hand for the end. Where you seem to be going one way and then wham—in the frame—you get something that looks entirely different.
With Your Monster, Halloween is covered rather well. Apart from that, Tommy Dewey’s performance and the film’s atmosphere make this screwball horror comedy great for a good time. The film paints a ribbon of history around you and entices you with its promise. With one or two logical potholes, the vision to steer the story is pretty rock solid, making Your Monster a charmingly insane combination of rom-com and horror, which more than certainly does the job.
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