Melissa Barrera plays a struggling actress who falls for the monster in her bedroom closet in this unusual genre mash-up.
Melissa Barrera has done horror with the Scream franchise and musicals with In the Heights – and now she’s combining the two for Your Monster.
She plays Laura Franco, a struggling actress whose life falls apart when she is diagnosed with cancer and dumped by her playwright boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Sullivan) around the same time.
Laura reluctantly moves into her mother’s house and finds unexpected companionship – and perhaps something more – with the oddly charming monster (played by Tommy Dewey) in her closet.
Thanks to Monster, Laura stops feeling sorry for herself and turns to revenge. He helps her find her voice, embrace her inner rage and stop letting people walk all over her.
After discovering that Jacob has recast his musical to give the lead role, which was written for her, to famous actress Jackie Dennon (Meghann Fahy), Laura gets her own back by playing Jackie’s understudy and being in Jacob’s presence every day.
Your Monster, written and directed by Caroline Lindy, cannot be easily defined. The most obvious genre is romantic comedy but there’s also a dash of horror, some serious drama and a handful of musical numbers. Yep, it’s got it all!
It is hard to balance so many different tones and genres and make a cohesive film but Lindy pulls it off and moves her feature seamlessly through them.
However, horror fans may disappointed with Your Monster because there is only a slight horror edge until the end. Lindy definitely could have pushed the horror factor further but it’s only a minor genre in the mix, despite the marketing suggesting otherwise.
Barrera is well accomplished in the horror and musical domains and Your Monster proves that she can do comedy too. She is very funny as the overdramatic and ever-crying Laura at the start and she charts her evolution well, with the help of Lindy’s smart script.
The Scream star also has a wonderful Beauty and the Beast-style romance with Dewey. It shouldn’t work on paper but they’re so adorable together you can’t help but support it.
Your Monster is a bold, unusual and crowd-pleasing film that defies expectations and refuses to be boxed into a genre.
In cinemas from Friday 29th November.
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