Monster (Video 2008)

Erin and sister Sarah travel to Japan to do interviews about global warming. However, on the 1st day of said interviews Tokyo suffers a horrendous earthquake and as they take cover, they ... See full summary »

Director:

Erik Estenberg

Writers:

Erik Estenberg (story), David Michael Latt (story),

Stars:

Erin Evans, Sarah Lieving, Justin L. Jones

Cast

Cast overview:
Erin Evans	...	Erin Lynch
Sarah Lieving	...	Sarah Lynch
Justin L. Jones	...	Justin
Kazuyuki Okada	...	Mizuchi
Yoshi Ando	...	Hiro
Jennifer Kim	...	Aiko
Hiroshi Ueha	...	Japanese Grandfather
Akira Sato	...	Isao
Kosei Seki	...	News Crew
Jason Williams	...	Soldier #1
Robert Chu	...	Soldier #2
Shinichiro Shimizu	...	Japanese Reporter
Chad Nell	...	American Reporter
Yosuke Hosoi	...	Cameraman

Storyline

Erin and sister Sarah travel to Japan to do interviews about global warming. However, on the 1st day of said interviews Tokyo suffers a horrendous earthquake and as they take cover, they soon discover the rumbling is caused by something quite different. The video shown documents their desperate attempt to escape while filming the events befalling them as it happens. What follows is their shaky hand-held footage that appears to have been recovered and presumably posted posthumously for all to see on the internet.

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Plot Keywords:

block blunder | monster | japan | cgi

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Taglines:

The Truth Will Finally Be Told.

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

Iszonyat

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Global Asylum, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The movie is set in the month of January. Within the movie, they walk around as though it is hot outside. This would not be the case as the average January temperature in Tokyo is approximately 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius).

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Quotes

[last lines]
Sarah Lynch: Erin. Erin. Erin. Erin. Have you seen my sister! Have you seen my sister!
[Sarah sees Erin sitting against a wall wounded]
Sarah Lynch: Oh, Erin!

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Crazy Credits

"The events, characters, and firms depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental (or is it? You be the judge.)"

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Connections

References Southland Tales (2006)

User Reviews

A monster movie without a monster

Okay maybe this is not a rip-off of Cloverfield, and maybe I should not have watched it a few days after said movie. But still, Monster is almost exactly the same with chicks (you could sell anything with chicks, right?), without a decent plot, acting, and sadly, without a monster.

We get two girls who are in Japan to make a documentary, when Tokyo is hit by an earthquake. And this is when the movie starts to get irreversibly bad and annoying. Because the two girls, however cute they may be, just cannot seem to use the camera. In the middle of a monster attack, *everything* is filmed, except for what is actually happening. When our heroines are staring with their jaws dropped at something supposedly terrible, the camera is well... showing them, their jaws dropped, staring. Then cut, or artifacts on the film (at every 5 seconds, or when something interesting is about to happen), and we go to the next scene. Rinse and repeat. In the end, we are given 90 minutes of artifacts, girls being scared and talking nonsense, running somewhere (filming each other's legs in the process), and just hanging out in Tokyo, obviously afraid of some tentacle monster that they always fail to capture with the camera.

Besides of not being able to make a point (it is hard when you point the camera at your sister instead of at whatever is happening around you), the movie fails to convey a sense of plot. We know where the girls are trying to go, but we just do not care if they ever get there, or what happens if they do. There is simply no drama, no excitement, mostly due to the bad use of camera, and the long talky scenes, and short scary ones (usually cut by artifacts, or simply, darkness).

I can't help but to compare this movie to Cloverfield, where you got a monster, and after some time, you actually got interested in where the group is going, and in the end, you cared. Monster could have been a great movie, even without showing the monster, if it manages to make you feel for the girls, but it sadly fails. It is not simply bad, but also an uninteresting movie.