THERE IS A MONSTER (2024)

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Directed/Written by Mike Taylor.
Starring Joey Collins, Ena O’Rourke, Marcellus Bassman Shepard, Jesse Milliner, MerryRose Howley, Kelly Schwartz, William L. Thomas, Steve Teller, Tim Nicholson
Check out the trailer here!!

A photographer, Jack (played by Joey Collins) suddenly feels as if her is being haunted by a strange entity. As the entity becomes more prevalent, Jack’s body begins fail him, just as his life, which had been quite fractured, is beginning to come together. Jack’s estranged wife Carol (Ena O’Rourke) and best friend David (Marcellus Bassman Shepard) notice these changes, but feel powerless when doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists fail to understand what is going on.

THERE IS A MONSTER is less of a narrative story and more of an example of how a person can go from completely normal to succumbing to a debilitating disease. The metaphor of the monster, lurking in the periphery and then becoming more prevalent and more harmful to Jack seems to be a person one for all of the people involved, so I don’t want to be too hard on the film.

That said, THERE IS A MONSTER has a lot of technical problems that got in the way of me enjoying it. The acting is ok at times. Lead Joey Collins is by far the strongest actor of the bunch as the story focuses on his decline. This is a deeply personal story and while Collins has some thespian hiccups at selling some of the lines, he does a decent job of carrying the movie. The rest of the cast are ok to offering up a television commercial type of delivery to their performances. The film also has very rudimentary effects as the shadow monster is pretty much a guy popping his head out or lingering in the background in a black body suit. Occasionally, rudimentary special effects are placed upon the suit to make it seem unearthly. That’s about it. Everything else is all up to Collins to perform how the monster is affecting him. On top of that, the directing is quite flat, with some very rough scene transitions consisting of jarring fades in and out and music accompaniment that really doesn’t match the dire tone of the movie.

The story itself lacks the typical conflict/resolution sort of narrative style. A normal horror movie presents normal life, then has the monster challenge that stability, and then the protagonist finds a way to beat the challenge. Because THERE IS A MONSTER tries to give an accurate story of a debilitating disease, the fact that this monster appears when everything seems to be going well for Jack seems unfair. Life is unfair. Fiction isn’t. The audience deserves some kind of resolution. While you don’t want to have Jack magically cured, maybe he can find some solace when he finds out what the disease is he is suffering from and that he isn’t crazy. That leaves the viewer with some sense of accomplishment. THERE IS A MONSTER doesn’t offer that type of resolution, which left me feeling pretty unsatisfied by the end.

The end blurb gives a website to contact to help support ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and I am fortunate enough to not have this devastating disease affect anyone I know, but I do know how hard an illness of this type can affect a family and the person suffering from it. THERE IS A MONSTER serves as a well-intended film that gives an up close and personal take on how one might feel as a debilitating illness like ALS can come from nowhere and utterly upend one’s life. I can’t recommend it as a good movie as it fails narratively, but it does take one through the emotions, confusion, sadness, and despair that accompanies this type of disease in a convincing and heartbreaking manner. In that sense, it’s a success at putting the viewer in the shoes of the afflicted.