‘Monstrous’: A breakthrough

There is no doubt that the mere presence of a recognized star, especially in a certain genre, can arouse interest in a project. This is the case of ‘Monstrous’, which stars Christina Ricci, actress recognized as one of the main faces of genre cinema. The iconic performer takes on the role of a recently divorced woman (and on the run from her abusive husband) who He settles with his son in a house on the outskirts of California, near a lake, in the United States of the 1950s.

Directed by Chris Sivertson, best remembered for the horror thriller ‘I Know Who Killed Me’, that film in which Lindsay Lohan prefers to forget she starred; ‘Monstrous’ has an atmospheric beginning. This is precisely one of the most positive points of the film, with a fabulous Christina Ricciwho knows how to put herself in the shoes of a woman who has to deal alone with her son, who has escaped from the clutches of an abusive husband and who tries to rebuild her life on her own, with a job as a typist compatible with her job as a housewife.

At first, Sivertson knows how to introduce the terrifying elements. albeit conventional, a mysterious entity of the lake that frightens (at first) the woman’s son, a disturbing scenario, a house away from society, a natural environment that offers its darkest side. The director, who is directing a screenplay by Carol Chrest, seems to know how to keep the audience interested in how this story will develop which required more psychological terror and which, unfortunately, it ends up turning into a series of predictable scare sequences.

Christina Ricci can’t save an overly conventional horror proposition

Finally, Sivertson offers a film that follows not only well-known paths, but its final part, in which there should be more twists, it is so different from what was previously stated, that it causes the audience to leave a story who, on the other hand, doesn’t know if it wants to be a psychological horror, with excessively slow sequences, or a horror of typical scares. In the centre, a presumed dark parable of mourning and accepting the departure of the other. However, Sivertson doesn’t know how to have enough tact to make it happen.

Christina Ricci does what she can in this production whose initial premise gave rise to much more, especially since it aimed to have a complexity typical of today’s prestigious horror films. Her aesthetic knows how to create that contrast between the color of the 50s and the sinister nature of its history. However, ‘Monstrous’ has a script that doubts and finally tries to play it safe, remaining half throttle in all its intentions.

Note: 4

The best: Christina Ricci, once again showing her affinity for terror.

Worse: A predictable script and a story that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be.