Advertisement
Review | Netflix movie review: Monster – Indonesian horror thriller goes the A Quiet Place route but fails miserably
- Its characters mostly mute, Monster follows 13-year-old Alana (played by Anantya Kirana) and her friend, who are abducted and taken to a house in the woods
- When Alana gives her abductor (Alex Abbad) the slip, she uncovers the extent of his atrocities in this horror film that never quite lives up to its premise
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
1/5 stars
The gimmick in Indonesian filmmaker Rako Prijanto’s new kidnap thriller Monster is that the characters do not speak – they all can, but are only permitted to do so by the film’s screenplay when calling out each other’s names.
For the rest of the film’s lean 84-minute runtime, they are restricted to uttering screams and breathless grunts, or simply scowling at one another, even when regular oral communication might mean the difference between life and death.
This stylistic affectation has been effectively employed several times in the past, particularly within the horror genre. Mike Flanagan’s Hush, John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place and, most recently, Brian Duffield’s alien home invasion thriller No One Will Save You all succeeded in delivering palpable thrills through a minimum of dialogue.
In Monster, however, it proves to be a constant narrative hindrance, derailing what might otherwise have been a promising escape film.
Monster’s pint-sized protagonist Alana, played by 13-year-old Anantya Kirana, is arguably the film’s strongest asset.
Advertisement