Monster (2008)

After a massive earthquake in Tokyo, two American filmmakers document the true cause of the destruction.

Director:

Eric Forsberg

Writers:

Eric Forsberg (story), David Michael Latt (story)

Stars:

Erin Evans, Sarah Lieving, Justin L. Jones

Cast

Credited cast:
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
Shin Shimizu	...	Japanese Reporter (as Shinichiro Shimizu)
Chad Nell	...	American Reporter
Yosuke Hosoi	...	Cameraman
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brian Takahashi	...	Doctor

Storyline

Two sisters travelling to Japan to do interviews about global warming are caught in the midst of a horrendous earthquake, until they discover that it's something quite different.

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Plot Keywords:

no survivors | psychotronic film | japan | monster | cgi | 

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Taglines:

The Truth Will Finally Be Told.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mockbuster of Cloverfield (2008).

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Goofs

The movie takes place in January 2003 yet the characters make several references to "YouTube". YouTube was not created until February 14, 2005, more than two years after the movie takes place.

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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 Global Asylum Inc. is the author and mother of this motion picture for the purposes of copyright and other law.

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Connections

References Ghost Rider (2007)

User Reviews

Laborious

You've probably all figured out by now that this is the straight-to-video knock-off of the much anticipated "Cloverfield". I was pretty curious about this, partly because it comes from The Asylum (their stuff is just addictively bad!) and because the trailer for it looked nearly competent. So naturally I rented it as soon as I had the chance.

The plot (ha!) concerns two women, a documentary crew, who fly to Tokyo to interview an official about global warming. Everything in the movie is filmed vacation-video style from the girls' hand-held camera (just like "Cloverfield"). During the interview the monster attacks and the city becomes a disaster area. Our heroes are forced to run for cover and try to find people who speak English while still documenting the monster's rampage.

I expected weak CGI effects and bad dialogue, but I was also disappointed to find that the hand-held camera wasn't hand-held looking at all (the making-of feature on the DVD betrayed their real techniques) and the down-time that fills out most of the movie happens in spots that look more like L.A. than Tokyo. Transitions are accomplished with unconvincing video distortion, an attempt to sell us on the gimmick that we are watching found footage. There's an attempt at explanation for the monster too, which was perhaps the worst aspect of this mess.

"Monster" may be The Asylum's worst. In spite of a good trailer, this will be forgotten especially because they chose a title already used for a Charlize Theron movie. "Cloverfield" has nothing to fear from this.

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:

The Asylum

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1