PLOT SUMMARY: When Laura moves into a secluded new house with her son Cody, she soon finds herself dealing with a monster from the pond nearby.
A lot of philosophers will say that the biggest enemy a person has is their own thoughts. Anger and fear especially are two emotions that can debilitate a person, consuming them until they are incapable of living their life. Their loss of control over their emotions is what stops them from living a fulfilling life.
So in a way, we become our own enemies. We stop ourselves from being truly happy and healing from traumatic events. We hold onto anger and fear and grief and forget that as time passes, so must our reaction.
Just as a wound heals over time, so must the mental scars that are incurred after a life-changing event. But it is difficult to move on sometimes. Difficult to not get full closure over things that are beyond our control. And the people involved in that event, if they do not apologize or try to make amends, how do we forgive and move on?
In time, these unresolved feelings of resentmentthis monstrous thing especially, manifest into this monstrous things that strain you and stop you from moving ahead. These unresolved feelings seem to take on a form of their own and weaken you.
MONSTROUS is a movie that touches upon this a little bit although in the beginning you wouldn't suspect it.
The beginning of the movie is completely different from the ending and when the twist hits, it will do little to amaze you and instead bewilder because somewhere along the lines, the plot turns stick out much like the stuffing sticking out of the sofa in the movie. And no matter how much you try to stitch it all up neatly, the stuffing is visible and coming out.
The plot simply unravels in the end.
MONSTROUS Movie Plot
The movie begins with Cody looking into the pool. The scene drastically shifts to Laura driving her son Cody to a house that is far away.
Mr Langtree meets up with her and keeps calling her young lady as he gives her the keys. She tells him her son is with her but that he's asleep in the car.
Now we've seen Cody stare out the window throughout the trip so him not showing up to meet their only neighbor is suspicious. Considering what we learn later, Laura too is quite aware and devious in this scene. She knew she had to hide Cody from the neighbors. Even if she does this subconsciously.
She then waves at his wife who is sitting in the truck and looks far from friendly even as Laura raises a hand in greeting.
Laura dismisses her and enters the house.
Cody gets a nice little bedroom with windows overlooking the pond. Laura lets him take a nap while she prepares dinner.
Later Laura is watching TV and relaxing when the phone rings. Without even listening to who it could be, she puts it down.
The next morning, Cody is dropped off to school with a motivational speech while Laura heads off to work. She has a job as a typist and gets front seat. The first thing she does is put up a photo of her son. Then she types away, making mistakes along the way and requiring the use or correctional ink.
At dinner, Cody doesn't have much of an appetite. The food is mashed everything and what looks like a giant meatball. Laura isn't too perturbed. She rattles on about her excellent day while her son sulks and complains about wanting to go home. Laura pretty much tells him it isn't happening .
At night, Cody's screaming brings Laura to his bedroom. He claims he saw a monster but of course Laura dismisses it as childishness and comforts him.
The next night, after putting Cody to bed, who wasn't in a good mood, she settles down to watch TV. In the kitchen, the tap is dripping. The TV suddenly goes out. Laura whacks it a couple of times before resigning and then goes to her couch only to find a tear and stuffing coming out of it. She is examining it when she hears Cody scream.
Something in the lake has come into his room and left behind smoky prints that disappear when Laura appears to comfort her son.
The next morning she goes to Mr Langtree and asks him to do some repairs. His wife straight away tells her that she will be charged for the TV repairs. Laura doesn't like how rude Mrs Langtree is but keeps her retort in check. She agrees to pay for the repairs.
At work, she's making more mistakes and seems anxious. There's a camera in the corner and she eyes it nervously.
Yes, in the 50s and 60s, there were CCTVs and apparently this company did install one to keep an eye on the employees.
Soon enough it is Cody's birthday and Laura takes great pains to choose cards, write down the names of his classmates, and then put up decorations.
On the day of the birthday, none of the children come. Laura tries to console him but Cody is okay.
In the evening Laura gets a call again. It is her ex husband who states that he misses her and his son. Laura disconnects the call.
In Cody's room, the monster from the pond emerges and makes its way into his bedroom. Cody tries to hide under the blankets.
Laura goes to check outside and misses seeing the monster standing right outside her son's bedroom. The monster enters Cody's room and grabs him hard enough to make him scream.
Laura runs over to him but this time Cody is fine. Later he even tells her that he doesn't mind his new friend because she's nice.
Laura is perplexed.
The next day when she's cleaning out Cody's room, the backpack falls down revealing the birthday invitations Cody was supposed to distribute. Laura loses it completely when she sees them and scolds her son. He gets scared and pushes her back.
The mother and son's relationship develops friction. In the evening, when Laura is watching TV, she senses someone behind her. It's the monster. She screams but is pulled down into the pond. She begins to drown and just about manages to pull herself up. She drags herself and sees Cody sitting on the staircase and just watching her. As she pants, he just walks away casually.
Laura is facing a worse time at work and at home.
She tries to get Cody to talk and play with the children at a park but when Cody approaches one of them, the boy leaves behind his hula hoop to climb a tree. Cody insists they go home. He doesn't even want want try to make friends anymore.
Eventually when Cody misbehaves again, she screams at him.and he retaliateq by screaming back. Only his screaming causes all the pipes to burst and for a huge mess to form. There's literally milk spilling on the floor for some reason.
Laura screams, Cody stops and she makes it very clear to him that they are never going back home because she couldn't forgive her husband even if Cody is ready to forgive his father.
The next day Laura contacts Mr and Mrs Langtree again and tells them about the repairs needed. Mrs Langtree is grumpy as ever and suspects Laura takes drugs.
When Laura comes home one day, she finds Mrs Langtree inside her house roaming about and accusing Laura of taking illegal substances. Laura finally gives it back to her resulting in Mrs Langtree telling her she has 30 days to move out. Laura doesn't take her threat seriously.
MONSTROUS Ending Explained with Spoilers!
When Laura goes to pick up her son from school, she can't find him anywhere and freaks out. She contacts a police officer who then brings her to the station.
A woman Detective walks in with open hair and questions Laura about Cody. Laura wants to know where her son is and if they are taking her seriously. The woman Detective tells her she's not even going to try to find Cody. But she does ask Laura if she remembers about the accident Cody was in.
Laura remembers Cody jumping in the pool, from the first scene, except what happened was that he drowned. She blames her husband for not watching their son carefully.
The Detective now has her hair tied and looks sympathetic. Things start to make sense now.
Laura imagined Cody was still alive. Shocking!
She leaves the police station and we see that that though she is dressed in 50s or 60s housewife dress, she's actually in modern times. People around her look at her like she's either mad or going to a costume party.
She meets with Cody who tells her she needs to forgive herself and let him go. She tells him she can't and misses him too much. Eventually she lets him go after more tears flow.
Laura had always carried a photograph of her grandmother near a car, with her. Turns out Laura imagined to be in her grandmother's era and imagined that car to be her car.
We see her car has broken down and a truck has come to help her out. The car is no longer bright and shiny. It looks in bad shape although remarkably still works.
The grandmother had that car in 1959. Laura managed to keep the car and maintain it for so long. And the car still works!
Laura may have gone crazy for a bit but she took good care of a car and drove it all the way in the middle of nowhere.
The movie ends.
And now we wonder, what was it with the monster? Was I supposed to represent her unresolved emotions and grief? Was the monster a metaphor for what she felt?
Then again, why is it that in her imagination she saw the monster coming after her son? Was it because she also saw the monster as death coming to claim her son but she fought it every time so she could keep her son?
Is that why the monster always came from the water and tried to take her son? And did something similar happen to her grandmother which is why Cody remarks that his new friend is actually very beautiful?
Did the grandmother actually come to take her grandson to the light? How much of all of this was Laura's imagination and how much of it was actually a supernatural occurrence?
Unfortunately, the movie doesn't answer these questions for you.
MONSTROUS could actually have been a scary movie but things just don't go that way. The twist can be guessed after a couple of scenes and although that isn't exactly a setback to the movie, what does pull down the story is the lack of clarity when the climax hits.
The story gets a little jumbled and then too conveniently sorted out without properly addressing the issues where Laura's mental health is concerned.
It seems that she would have had this breakdown and imagined Cody a long time before she came to this town. Shouldn't her ex husband sent someone behind her or reported her or contacted anyone to make sure she wasn't going to hurt herself? He did seem concerned enough to call her everyday after all.
The fact that Laura's character and motivations are not fully explored, makes this movie feel almost incomplete. If only there had been more hints pertaining to Laura's insistence to imagine herself in the 50s instead of present times.
Just one photograph with a date was simply not enough.
Off topic: Cristina Ricci's fake eyelashes were a little too distracting. She played her part wonderfully but the make up plays spoilsport in most scenes.
Scare scale: 3/5
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