monster movie review guardian

Monster (2024) Review

Following cinematic adventures in Paris ( The Truth ) and South Korea ( Broker ), Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland of Japan for another round of fractured families, isolation and loss. In essence, Monster is The Towering Inferno meets Rashomon meets Waterloo Road : the director spinning a compassionate tale from the point of view of a parent, then a teacher, then a pupil. It’s sometimes tough to follow but it is shot through with a gentle, generous spirit, lucid filmmaking and terrific performances, confirming Kore-eda as one of the best directors of children working today.

The starting point for each story cycle is a deliberate fire at a hostess bar in a lakeside Japanese town. Who actually started the fire is an overarching mystery that gurgles away beneath the narrative, but Kore-eda locates the story firmly in his delicate-drama wheelhouse. The core of the story starts with 11-year-old Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) confessing to his mother Saori (Sakura Andō) that he has been struck by teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayama), rumoured to be a frequenter of the burning knocking shop, and the fallout that follows.

Yet another beautiful meditation on the difficulty in finding happiness

Is the boy lying? Is the teacher a weirdo? All potentialities are given a thorough work-out as Monster plays out the events from different vantage points. Each different rendering deepens your understanding of the characters and, more importantly, makes your sympathies and allegiances slip and slide like a ’90s Essex foam party. The events themselves don’t change, only the perspectives, Kore-eda playing fast and loose with our tendency to always assume the worst.

The director is working from Yuji Sakamoto’s screenplay (the first time he hasn’t written his own for nearly 30 years), but this still feels like a Kore-eda joint. There’s lots of lovely detail on display — a single running shoe resonates more strongly in each version — and, as ever with Kore-eda, the performances are on point. Shoplifters ’ Sakura Andō is a force as the mother tearing into teachers she believes are concealing Mr Hori’s bullying, and the film misses her presence when it switches tack. Kurokawa is yet another product of the Kore-eda School Of Child Acting Prodigies, his friendship with Hinata Hiiragi as an androgynous classmate beautifully etched.

It lacks the easy simplicity of the filmmaker’s best work — the structural shenanigans sometimes work against its emotional efficacy — but it’s yet another beautiful meditation on the difficulty in finding happiness. It also gets a cherry on top with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score (his last), the plaintive, piano-led pieces adding an air of melancholia  — the cumulative effect of which is released in the film’s final moments of joy.

Advertisement

Supported by

Critic’s Pick

‘Monster’ Review: Three Perspectives, One Truth

This drama from Hirokazu Kore-eda traces a series of events from the perspectives of a single mother, her preteen son and his fifth-grade teacher.

• Share full article

By Natalia Winkelman

The stretch of time that unfurls in the sublime Japanese drama “Monster” begins with a fire and ends during a monsoon. These elemental disasters, and a fragile cluster of events that fall between them, are viewed from the perspectives of three characters entwined in a messy struggle for understanding: a boy, a mother and a teacher.

Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (“Broker,” “Shoplifters”) and written by Yuji Sakamoto, “Monster” opens as Minato (Soya Kurokawa), a sensitive preteen, begins fifth grade. His single mom, Saori (Sakura Ando), grows concerned when Minato comes home distressed and with injuries. She soon casts blame on his teacher, Hori (Eita Nagayama), who is fired over the accusation.

A master of family affairs, Kore-eda directs with a discerning but delicate style, and “Monster,” with its triptych structure, initially feels more schematic than is typical of his works. There is a deep pleasure, though, in marrying this screenplay’s layered form with Kore-eda’s sensitivity and low-key naturalism. While the film’s first segment gestures at science fiction — Minato insists his brain was replaced with a pig’s — the second seamlessly pivots into something Kafkaesque. That’s all before Minato’s point of view excavates the story’s essential truths.

Lovingly detailed and accented by an aching score from Ryuichi Sakamoto , who died in March, “Monster” is one of the finest films of the year, and its structure — like its circle of characters — carries secrets that can only be unraveled through patience and empathy. Put a different way: It’s easy to call someone a monster before you squelch a muddy mile in their shoes.

Monster Rated PG-13. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Season 49 of “Saturday Night Live” has ended. Here’s a look back at its most memorable monologues, sketches, product parodies and impressions .

“Megalopolis,” the first film from the director Francis Ford Coppola in 13 years, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what to know .

Why is the “Planet of the Apes” franchise so gripping and effective? Because it doesn’t monkey around, our movie critic writes .

Luke Newton has been in the sexy Netflix hit “Bridgerton” from the start. But a new season will be his first as co-lead — or chief hunk .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Monster: Koreeda Hirokazu’s elegant and imaginative expression of childhood

An incident involving a schoolboy plays out from three different vantage points in this finely-grained family drama.

14 March 2024

By  Guy Lodge

An incident of classroom misconduct – and its ramifications, both domestic and institutional – plays out from three different vantage points in Monster. ‘Perspectives’ wouldn’t quite be the right term: though each section of Koreeda Hirokazu’s elegantly folded new film leads with a different character, the action is never shown explicitly through anyone’s eyes. Reverse angles and newly adjacent, contextualising scenes shift our conception of blame and victimhood in a story that narrows from one of a hostile community to intimate, ecstatic isolation. 

Rashomon (1950) has been raised repeatedly by critics as a reference point since Monster premiered at Cannes last year, but it’s hardly the same. Koreeda’s film doesn’t pit contradicting stories against each other; rather, it layers accounts fraught with blind spots and psychological frailties – building a bigger picture while stressing everyone’s essential unknowability. At Cannes, Monster won the Queer Palme for the best LGBTQ + story; it’s indicative of the film’s lithe, shimmying structure that viewers may spend the bulk of its running time mystified as to why. 

For Koreeda, the film marks both a homecoming – to Japanese cinema, after somewhat ungainly excursions to France (The Truth, 2019) and South Korea (Broker, 2022) – and a departure. It’s his first feature since his 1995 debut Maborosi that he hasn’t written, and while Sakamoto Yūji’s elaborately diagrammatic screenplay plays to Koreeda’s strengths with its fine-grained family drama and empathetic focus on children, its narrative switches and reversals require more opacity and emotional reticence than is customary from his filmmaking.

It begins with a building ablaze on the squat skyline of a small, unspecified Japanese city; a freak rainstorm will bookend proceedings, the elements twice uncannily intervening in a story of human impulse and foible. On one floor of the burning block is a hostess bar supposedly frequented by mild-mannered primary school teacher Mr Hori (Nagayama Eita); some distance away, widowed single mother Saori (Andō Sakura, the marvellous star of Koreeda’s 2018 film Shoplifters) watches the inferno with morbid interest from her apartment balcony. Her pre-teen son Minato (Kurokawa Soya) is one of Hori’s students; his mother’s distaste for Hori’s rumoured extracurricular activities will soon factor into a tense bust-up with the school staff.

The hitherto gentle Minato has become sullen and unreadable – cutting his own hair, going awol in a storm drain, jumping from his mother’s moving car. When he comes home from school with a facial injury, saying Hori is responsible, Saori reads the teacher and oddly impassive headmistress Fushimi (Tanaka Yūko) the riot act. She gets repeated deferential apologies, but no explanation; the script is sharp on how a culture of courtesy can impede candour. 

After 45 minutes, we rewind to the beginning, with Hori’s knowledge of classroom dynamics recalibrating our perception of Minato’s behaviour. But the teacher’s outburst that Minato is a bully – and his smaller, feyer classmate Yori (Hiiragi Hinata) his target – doesn’t ring true either: the boys are friends, perhaps chastely more, with an understanding of each other that increasingly excludes their minders.

‘Who is the monster?’ is a recurring question in Koreeda’s film, vocalised by the boys in a taunting, sing-song chant, but essentially paraphrased by adult characters keen to divide the world into villains and victims. Fushimi’s strange, affectless manner stems from the recent death of her grandchild, in which she may have been culpable; Yori’s alcoholic single father (Nakamura Shidō) may be his real abuser, implanting a ludicrous lie in the boy’s mind – that his brain was transplanted with a pig’s – which ripples maliciously through the action.

Some may find this a lot of business to wade through to get to the film’s heart, crystallised in its final third: a naive, intensely pure romance of sorts between two grieving boys, exquisitely played by Hiiragi and Kurokawa. But the friction between adults’ rule-determined antagonism and the unbound emotional and imaginative expression of childhood is essential to the film’s payoff – ineffable tragedy rising into galloping, sunlit release.

 ►  Monster is in UK cinemas from 15 March. 

Other things to explore

The shrouds: cronenberg captures the obsessional force of grief in a dystopian widower drama.

By Nicolas Rapold

All We Imagine as Light: Payal Kapadia’s graceful vision of Mumbai marks her out as a filmmaker of significant promise

By Arjun Sajip

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1: an unashamedly old-fashioned western

By John Bleasdale

Culture | Film

Monster review: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s subtle, smart and beautiful work is up there with Shoplifters

Remember Shoplifters? What a wonderfully warm-but-sad, clever movie Hirokazu Kore-eda’ s Palme D’Or -winning, Oscar nominated 2018 film was.

His last, Broker from 2022, was equally superb, but somehow felt overlooked on this side of the globe: the western world apparently only having capacity for a finite number of Asian films per year – ie one or two – to receive wider attention.

A sad state of affairs, perhaps, but if this continues to be the case then Monster ought to be in this year’s one or two. Because this is a film that deals with lots of very modern themes – not least social media gossiping and degrees of homophobia – in a far more subtle, smart and real way than many American or English movies do.

The setup is absolutely, bizarrely, creepily superb. A single mother Saori (Sakura Ando) and her son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) watch as a high rise building across the street burns to the ground.

We soon learn that it contained a kind of brothel and that one of the regular frequenters of said brothel was Mr Hori (Eita Nagayami): a school teacher who, it quickly transpires, has been picking on Minato by telling him that he has the brain of a pig (not a metaphor. He’s talking about transplant).

Saori is furious and storms into the school head’s office, demanding an explanation. She is told Minato was bullying another child, Eri (Hinata Hiiragi). Through twisting and turning flashbacks of various classroom events, we slowly learn what actually happened and that there is more to the two boys’ relationship than anyone first thought.

Kore-eda has been making films for three decades now, most of which are quietly angry with society and delve deep into family dynamics. I was surprised to learn that Monster is the first film he has directed that he has not also written himself since 1995’s Maborosi, because it feels like a very personal piece of work.

But whatever: the child characters here feel more intricately, three dimensionally realised than those of many more zeitgeist-ey, younger filmmakers (Kore-eda is 61 and a late-in-life father).

Yes, in the end, there are perhaps one or two too many of these flashback twists, to the extent that by the end it does start to feel a bit Scooby Doo. But Monsters is beautifully shot and superbly acted – the kids, in particular, are brilliant – and deserves to garner as much international recognition as its much-lauded predecessor. In cinemas

127 mins, cert 12A

‘I’m getting emotional’ – Lenny Henry prepares to host his final Red Nose Day

Lindsay Lohan ‘started crying’ after spotting her son watching The Parent Trap

Sharon Stone names producer she claims told her to sleep with co-star

Celebrate Art of London’s collaborations with women artists

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

‘Monster’ Review: Kore-eda Hirokazu Hides Surprise Plea for Acceptance Beneath Much Darker Themes

A tricksy timeline and the selective unveiling of crucial information keeps audiences from guessing where this convoluted portrait of a pre-teen in turmoil might be headed.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• Cannes Awards: Female-Centered Stories Win Big in Cannes, as Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ Earns Palme d’Or 4 days ago
• ‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ Review: An Animated Fable From the Director of ‘The Artist’ Finds Hope in the Holocaust 5 days ago
• ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ Review: Repression Hasn’t Chastened Mohammad Rasoulof, Who Responds With a Marathon Domestic Critique 5 days ago

In film after film, from “Nobody Knows” to “Shoplifters,” Japanese master Kore-eda Hirokazu has proven himself to be among the medium’s most humanistic directors, inclined to see the best in people, especially children. So how to reconcile the way “ Monster ” makes us feel?

Popular on Variety

When the explanation for Minato’s behavior finally does emerge, it comes from left field, but pulls so many of the movie’s other mysteries together … except for one: Why would Kore-eda choose such a convoluted way of telling this particular story? By sharing only select pieces of each character’s private life, he all but obliges us to leap to incorrect conclusions, distracting with topics such as bullying, aggression and suicide when the real subject — how children are socialized, and the unfair pressures this puts on anyone who doesn’t fit the norm — is so much simpler than any of the intriguing dimensions teased along the way.

When Saori finally realizes something’s wrong, she calls a meeting with the school principal (Tanaka Yuko). Believing Minato’s claim that Mr. Hori is responsible for the way he feels, Saori demands to know what kind of school lets a teacher insult and hit the students. As the slight wisps of one of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s last compositions underscores her concern, Saori’s heart (and ours) breaks a little to hear her son say, “My brain was switched with a pig’s.”

Obviously, someone must have put that idea in Minato’s head, but we can’t possibly know enough at this point to comprehend his turmoil. The malicious “pig’s brain” comment eventually traces back to a hardly seen side character. The trouble is, Minato believes it about himself, and fear of being found out drives a wedge in his friendship with Yori — a theme previous explored in last year’s Cannes breakout “Close.” Neither film quite knows how to deal with the idea that some kids can sense at a very young age when they’re not wired like their peers, and so long as prepubescent queerness remains such a touchy subject, identifying as such remains incredibly difficult.

About 45 minutes into the film, Kore-eda allows us to think something terrible has happened to Minato amid a typhoon, before resetting the timeline and taking another look from Mr. Hori’s vantage. There’s a “Rashomon” quality to that strategy, although the events themselves don’t change, only the perspective does, as Kore-eda demonstrates how easy it is to jump to false conclusions about other people (especially when misdirected to do so by a manipulative screenplay). In short order, we realize Minato misled his mother. “Monster” is less clear about why the boy might have lied, subtly observing as Mr. Hori teases his students with remarks like “Are you a real man?” and assigns them essays about who they want to marry when they grow up.

In the third and final run-through, Kore-eda rewinds and replays things once again, this time with a more omniscient understanding of his characters’ motives. We learn that the school principal, whom Saori witnessed tripping a rambunctious child at the local supermarket, has a devastating secret of her own. In the film’s most touching scene, Minato confesses to her, and she assures him, “Happiness is something anyone can have.” From here on, “Monster” stops messing with us and reveals its message. The typhoon hits town for a third time, and instead of suggesting that the boy might be in danger — of self-harm or drowning — the sun comes out. And so does Minato’s secret. “Monster” might have ended terribly, when in fact, Kore-eda’s humanist instinct has been at work all along.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Competition), May 17, 2023. Running time: 125 MIN. (Original title: “Kaibutsu”)

• Production: (Japan) A Toho Co. Ltd., Fuji Television Network Inc., Gaga Corporation, Aoi Pro. Inc., Bun-Buku Inc. presentation of an Aoi Pro. Inc production. (World sales: Goodfellas, Paris.) Producers: Kawamura Genki, Yamada Kenji, Banse Megumi, Ito Taichi, Taguchi Hijiri. Executive producers: Ichikawa Minami, Oota Toru, Tom Yoda, Ushioda Hajime, Kore-eda Hirokazu. Co-executive producer: Usui Hisaishi.
• Crew: Director: Kore-eda Hirokazu. Screenplay: Sakamoto Yuji. Camera: Kondo Ryuto. Editor: Kore-eda Hirokazu. Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto.
• With: Mugino Saori, Hori Michitoshi, Mugino Minato, Hoshikawa Yori, Fushimi Makiko.

More From Our Brands

Justice alito’s upside-down flag claim dismantled by police, neighbors: report, pup deck these superyachts were designed with their owners’ dogs in mind, the case to end college football, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, chicago p.d. boss gives an update on burgess and ruzek’s wedding — will it happen in season 12, verify it's you, please log in.

Screen Rant

Monster review: tender & compelling examination of childhood & mental health [cannes].

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Iron Claw: Kerry Von Erich’s Real Feud With Ric Flair Explained

Dune cosplayer looks nearly identical to timothée chalamet's paul atreides, 10 reasons jackie chan is the greatest kung fu movie star of all time.

Hirokazu Kore-eda returned to the Cannes Film Festival to debut his ninth feature film, marking his seventh entry at the popular international event and his first in which he does not pen the script for a feature since his debut. In his first Japanese language film since Shoplifters , the director collaborates with the renowned Japanese TV writer, Yuji Sakamoto. Monster reveals a story about adolescence, lies & deceit, and the consequences thereof from a humane perspective, slowly revealing intricate details of life’s biggest complications through three vantage points. The film demands a great deal of patience from you, but the payoff and the events leading up to it are well-earned emotional depositions.

The story follows a young boy Minato (Soya Kurokawa) as the challenges he faces at school begin to result in his strange behavior. His concerned mother, Saori (Sakura Andō) believes his actions stem from something that is more than meets the eye, and she frequently charges into his school to demand answers. Simultaneously, Minato’s classmate Eri (Hinata Hiiragi) and homeroom teacher Hori (Eita Nagayama) both seem to know another side to the story. As their three vantage points slowly unfold, so do the lies and consequences, which unveil buried truths that have troubled all the characters.

A richly divine story about childhood, secrets, the human need to fit in, and the outcomes thereof, Monster is a tender exposition of bullying, deceit, and self-honesty. These themes often begin to overpower one another, especially with the frequent shift to other story perspectives, but they offer an exceptional display about the intricacies of life, especially as one gets older. Yuji Sakamoto’s script examines what it means to see oneself as a “monster” with delicacy and a keen respect for complicated emotions we may experience in youth. Through the central character Minato, Sakamoto focuses on childlike experiences and emotions and how those impact communication with adults.

Under these profound storylines is a story that often pulls in themes related to mental health and child abuse. They often come at moments in which the script is already so heavily focused on other elements, that it may hit audiences like whiplash. Perhaps that is the intent of director Kore-eda, as he gracefully weaves in and out of the characters' perspectives through fade-aways or even sudden disruptions. It often abruptly changes the mood, but so can the emotions of a child, which is why it works exceptionally well here, driving home the point with a subtle yet tender approach. That, paired with the sensational scenery and visuals, thanks to his partnership with cinematographer Ryuto Kondo, makes the experience rich with curiosity and emotion.

Luckily, Kore-eda never directly lets us in on where he’ll conclude his film until the last 20 minutes or so. At times, it becomes a detriment to our enjoyment as some of the dialogue feels endless and requires heaps of patience to understand a possible explanation. However, the uncertainty also enables us to be immersed in the story without needing to put everything together immediately. Despite the vagueness and amalgamation of themes that center this feature, it is best to practice patience with this film. Because by the end, it oozes those familiar human elements that Kore-eda so richly and skillfully masters in his body of work.

A wonderful exploration of complex life experiences through the eyes of three different characters, Monster is considerate in how it tackles a range of themes related to bullying, child abuse, and lies. The exceptional camera work by Kore-eda and tender script from Yuji Sakamoto is a near-perfect pairing. Together, this dynamic duo created a great film that enabled the cast to put every ounce of emotion into their performances. Thanks to all these foundations, and with the film up for Palme d’Or in this year’s competition, this is a film to certainly add to one’s watch list.

Monster premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on May 17. The film is 125 minutes long and will premiere in Japan on June 2.

Our Rating:

• 4 star movies
• Monster (2021)

Review: Long-delayed, beautifully crafted ‘Monster’ is, unfortunately, timelier now than ever

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

Don’t be put off by its generic and overused — if ultimately appropriate — title. “Monster” is a terrific film: a strong, absorbing, beautifully performed and crafted social drama that, unfortunately, proves even timelier today than when it was shot in 2017. (The movie, first seen at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in a somewhat longer version, was once set for a 2019 theatrical release but eventually landed at Netflix, where it premieres Friday.)

Based on the 1999 young adult novel of the same name by Walter Dean Myers , the film follows the travails of 17-year-old Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), a budding filmmaker who lives with his loving, vigilant parents (Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson) and younger brother (Nyleek Moore) in Harlem but attends Stuyvesant High, an elite magnet school in Lower Manhattan.

He’s a smart, talented, careful kid with a bright future. That is, until, seemingly out of the blue, he’s charged with felony murder in connection with the death of a nearby bodega owner during a violent robbery.

Steve, of course, pleads innocent to claims that he was the “lookout” during the crime committed by charismatic neighborhood gangster James King (Rakim Mayers, a.k.a. rapper ASAP Rocky ), and King’s surly accomplice, Richard “Bobo” Evans (John David Washington).

But with little recourse, the terrified teen is sent to a New York prison to await trial for his alleged crime, as his earnest attorney (Jennifer Ehle) prepares his defense. Despite his apparent innocence, the lawyer explains why he’s in for an uphill battle: “Half that jury … decided that you’re guilty the moment they laid eyes on you. You’re young, you’re Black and you’re on trial. What else do they need to know?” It’s a piercing scene that, in one fell swoop, deftly encapsulates the Black experience within America’s criminal justice system.

Anthony Mandler, making his feature directing debut after a prolific career in commercials and music videos, effectively shuttles between the period of Steve’s trial and his everyday life leading up to it: We see his warm relationships with family, friends, girlfriend (Lovie Simone), film club teacher (Tim Blake Nelson) and especially his camera, through which he studies the world around him.

And it’s this love of capturing images that first connects him to the kinetic and compelling King, who engages Steve as a cool photographic subject — and a kind of arm’s-length trust forms between them. It’s one of several well-developed threads that weave together to entrap Steve and further complicate his legal defense. Suffice to say, there are several intriguing twists.

The script, by Cole Wiley, Janece Shaffer and Radha Blank (written before she blew up with “The Forty-Year-Old Version” ), puts forth the story’s many cogent points and observations with urgency and vitality, avoiding the sort of didactic messaging a less dimensional take might have prompted.

A classroom discussion of Akira Kurosawa’s famed psychological crime drama, “Rashomon,” could have come off as heavy-handed but, as presented here, proves a prescient fit for one of “Monster’s” key themes: “Embrace your point of view and tell the truth — as you know it.”

Similarly, Mandler’s stylish visual sense rarely overtakes or undermines the proceedings but rather helps immerse us in Steve’s camera-lens view of his world in ways that feel both authentic and evocative.

Harrison , in his first lead role before gaining widespread acclaim in such films as “Luce” and “Waves” (he’s also appeared in the TV series “Godfather of Harlem” and as Fred Hampton in “The Trial of the Chicago 7”), infuses Steve (and the character’s stirring narration) with a powerful, affecting mix of pain, fear, desperation, intellect and introspection. He’s a deeply watchable actor.

Other cast members who shot to fame soon after making this movie include Washington (“BlacKkKlansman,” “Tenet,” “Malcolm & Marie”) and Jharrel Jerome (an Emmy winner for the Central Park Five miniseries “When They See Us”), who plays a 15-year-old swept up in King’s dangerous world.

Wright is typically superb as Steve’s devoted, graphic designer dad; Paul Ben-Victor is spot-on as the trial’s aggressive, needling prosecutor; and rap icon Nasir “Nas” Jones impresses in a small but pivotal role as an inmate who befriends the imprisoned Steve.

“Monster” is a gripping and important film that commands and earns our attention.

'Monster'

Rating: R, for language throughout, some violence and bloody images Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes Playing: Available May 7 on Netflix

More to Read

In the mystery ‘Eric,’ desperation and decline manifest into a life-size monster puppet

May 26, 2024

Review: In ‘Evil Does Not Exist,’ a woodsy community confronts malice of a modern stripe

May 3, 2024

Review: ‘Monsters of the American Cinema’ confronts the horror in grief

April 16, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Albert S. Ruddy, Oscar-winning producer of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Million Dollar Baby,’ dies at 94

May 28, 2024

Glen Powell initially turned down his ‘Top Gun’ role — so Tom Cruise rewrote it for him

Column: Hollywood’s high-pressure expectations game has created a box office doom loop

The ‘Home Alone’ house is on the market — without the booby traps — for $5.25 million

‘Monster’ review: intricately woven mystery bolstered by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final film score

The late composer's music adds heft to this twisty-turny Japanese drama

J apanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda brings warmth, humanity and understanding to this complex puzzle box story about troubled childhood and the perils of perspective. As such, it’s a beautifully constructed and emotionally engaging tale that’s constantly surprising.

The story begins with an arresting image: an apartment building on fire in a small Japanese town. A rumour quickly goes around that local teacher Mr Hori (Eita Nagayami) was seen leaving a hostess bar in the building, so single mother Saori (Sakura Ando) is already suspicious of him when her young son Minato (Soya Kurokawa) tells her that Mr Hori has been abusing him at school, both verbally and physically.

A furious Saori heads to the school to complain, but is stonewalled by a bizarrely formal apology orchestrated by the principal (Yûko Tanaka). Eventually, Mr Hori reveals that in fact Minato has been bullying another child, sensitive classmate Yori (Hinata Hiiragi). But what’s really going on?

Kore-eda uses an intriguing structural device to tell the story, looping back twice to replay the same events from different perspectives. It’s not quite the Rashomon effect – the events themselves don’t change – but each perspective offers extra information that completely changes our interpretation of the story, and the characters’ motivations.

The result is fascinating, not least because of the way it alters the central themes of the film. At first it appears to be a drama about bullying and institutional cover-ups, but it gradually shifts and reveals itself to be about something altogether more sensitive, exploring coming-of-age elements like identity, social pressure, friendship and the damage caused by dysfunctional family relationships.

The script, by Yûji Sakamoto, is intricately constructed, drip-feeding little details of the larger mystery in a way that rewards paying close attention. In particular, Kore-eda makes great use of certain recurring objects – a shoe, a lighter – to the point where their final appearances feel like the pieces of a puzzle clicking satisfyingly into place. On a similar note, he also constructs an elaborate tease involving the film’s title, with the word “Monster” repeating several times in the film, in different contexts.

Recommended

Kore-eda’s sensitive direction plays interesting games with the audience’s sympathies throughout, underlining the film’s key point about the importance of perspective. This pays off beautifully in the third act, when the full story reveals itself and the characters’ true motivations are touchingly laid bare.

The performances are superb, with Nagoyami, Kurokawa and Hiiragi each carefully shading their characters, so that they fluctuate between suspicious and sympathetic. There’s also strong support from Tanaka, whose character turns out to have a dark secret of her own.

In addition, Kore-eda creates a great sense of place, aided by some superb locations and set design work, most notably with an abandoned train car in the forest, which serves as a sort of trouble-free idyll for Minato and Yori, somewhere where their imaginations can be given free reign.

On top of that, there’s a terrific score, including tracks composed specially for the film by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto , to whom the film is dedicated. The sound design work is impressive too, especially during a key typhoon sequence, and a surprisingly moving scene involving brass instruments.

• Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Starring: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayami, Soya Kurokawa
• Release date: March 15 (in cinemas)
• Related Topics
• Ryuichi Sakamoto

More Stories

Dropkick murphys announce 2025 uk tour, listen to james blake’s blissed-out new single ‘thrown around’, fans confused as nicki minaj asks for moment of silence for “dear friend” princess diana, wolf alice look back on 10 years of breakthrough ‘creature songs’ ep , here’s what pulp played at their first live show of 2024, here’s every song on the ‘buying london’ soundtrack, you may also like.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Hit Man Link to Hit Man
• Babes Link to Babes

New TV Tonight

• Eric: Season 1
• We Are Lady Parts: Season 2
• Geek Girl: Season 1
• The Outlaws: Season 3
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted: Season 4
• America's Got Talent: Season 19
• Fiennes: Return to the Wild: Season 1
• The Famous Five: Season 1
• Couples Therapy: Season 4
• Celebrity Family Food Battle: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Tires: Season 1
• Evil: Season 4
• The Sympathizer: Season 1
• Outer Range: Season 2
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Bodkin: Season 1
• A Man in Full: Season 1
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Bridgerton: Season 3 Link to Bridgerton: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

25 Most Popular TV Shows Right Now: What to Watch on Streaming

30 Most Popular Movies Right Now: What to Watch In Theaters and Streaming

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Vote For the Best Movie of 1999 – Round 2

Movie Re-Release Calendar 2024: Your Guide to Movies Back In Theaters

• Trending on RT
• Furiosa First Reviews
• Most Anticipated 2025 Movies
• Best Movies of All Time
• TV Premiere Dates

Monster Reviews

It’s got a few suspenseful moments, a couple of early jolts and chills. Then the whole enterprise morphs into an 84 minute long ordeal.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 22, 2024

Alana is resourceful, but she’s also plagued with that specific horror movie disease where people repeatedly leave their weapons behind after only using them once. It’s a frustrating watch.

Full Review | May 17, 2024

Great idea – dialogue is overrated! – but Monster offers no real surprises or suspense.

The adept cast and simple set-up suggest that Monster should be considerably better than the final result, which proves by turns contrived, implausible, exasperating, and palpably ridiculous.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 10, 2024

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Money Monster review - George Clooney goes Leslie Nielsen in popcorn hostage thriller

The Jodie Foster-directed satire about the financial meltdown isn’t especially original, but it’s arguably more honest than Oscar favourite The Big Short

A miasma of pure silliness settles on this movie directed by Jodie Foster, showing here in Cannes out of competition; it deserves a genre of its own: screwball action. Julia Roberts plays a harassed TV producer who has to keep in line her waning star: Lee Gates, played by George Clooney , the ego-crazed, silver-fox presenter of a TV show called Money Monster, giving stock picks and spurious shock-jock-type commentary on the market, celebrating unfettered capitalism by breaking into embarrassingly geriatric hip-hop moves with backing dancers. (He reportedly bears a certain resemblance to a real-life pundit: Jim Cramer, presenter of a programme called Mad Money, on CNBC.)

One day, Lee tips a company which trades in ultra-sophisticated financial derivatives and this firm loses $800m, taking down the life savings of many little people – including a truck driver called Kyle Budwell, played by Jack O’Connell, who breaks onto the set and holds Lee at gunpoint on live TV, making him wear a Semtex suicide-bomber vest, and demanding he apologise and explain to all the ordinary people who have been screwed by Wall Street.

It has to be said that the movie does not entirely convince as a white-knuckle thriller: the tension isn’t all that tense, and audiences are entitled to wonder from the outset how it is that Kyle has manage to breeze past security and how this dirt-poor guy has managed to find the materials to build a complex bomb. Money Monster isn’t terribly original either: it features the standard-issue tough female TV executive familiar from Network, Broadcast News and Nightcrawler. And to top it all off, it’s not exactly red-hot satire: the film isn’t particularly interested in challenging the system.

It needs hardly to be said that Clooney’s character is kind of a good guy really, and with some effrontery, Jodie Foster’s film even shows him and Roberts starting to do a little real investigative journalism into how exactly this company managed to mislay all those millions of dollars, and who the real villains are — even as gorgeous George has a gun at his head and sticks of TNT pressed to his vital organs.

But it’s fun, and undoubtedly watchable. Clooney carries off the absurdity of his position with some deadpan flair, and a tiny twinkle of camp. He is to this film what Leslie Nielsen was the Zucker/Abrahams comedies, and Roberts functions well as his exasperated straight-woman.

And something else needs to be said in this film’s defence. Despite its obvious conservatism, and its outrageous silliness, it is actually more clear-sighted and certainly less pompous than the hugely overrated Oscar-winner and liberal dinner-party favourite, The Big Short . Money Monster does insist that, for all the money guys’ smoke-and-mirror waffle about how trading algorithms go well beyond the control and understanding of the nay-sayers, wrongdoing is a simple matter of flesh-and-blood people committing fraud, lying and breaking the law in a way that everyone can understand and do something about. This is no masterpiece, but it’s amiable slice of popcorn entertainment.

• Money Monster
• Cannes 2016
• Cannes film festival
• Jodie Foster
• George Clooney
• Julia Roberts

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

The 35 greatest monster movies

Vampires, blobs, and creatures from the deep feature in the greatest monster flicks ever

Human beings have told stories featuring monsters since the dawn of time. With the advent of movies, we still maintain that tradition with countless monster movies to pick from. But which of them are actually the greatest of all time?

Starting with the 1915 German silent film The Golem, co-directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen, monster movies have been a popular attraction and subgenre of horror and adventure. While monster movies artistically explore ancient evils, they sometimes also represent the cutting edge of technology, with all kinds of movie monsters demanding different kinds of technical sophistication in order to come to life. (Other times, it’s a guy in a costume, and that can still be scary when done right.)

With the ongoing success of monster movies at the box office, we rank some of the greatest monster movies of all time, from the horrific to the hilarious to everything in between.

35. The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Quite literally taking a page from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, André Øvredal’s 2023 film The Last Voyage of the Demeter adapts the chapter “The Captain’s Log,” in which the captain of the doomed ship Demeter recounts in horrifying detail the awakening of Dracula in their cargo. A muscular creature feature set on the high seas that makes ample use of dark and dim lighting, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a worthwhile installment in the vast canon of vampire movies that features an especially monstrous twist on the granddaddy of all vampires.  

34. The Blob (1958)

B-movie horror is in fine, gooey form in Irvin Yeaworth’s campy monster flick The Blob. Starring a young Steve McQueen early in his movie career, The Blob tells of an evil alien substance that slowly grows in size and overtakes a small town in Pennsylvania. While The Blob is too campy to raise any real scares out of all-consuming gelatin, The Blob is still a can’t-miss piece of archetypal sci-fi horror that wholly represents the kind of cheap movies that teenagers flocked to in the ‘50s.

33. A Monster Calls (2016)

In director J.A. Bayona’s elaborate metaphor for familial grief, a young English boy (Lewis MacDougall) prepares for the death of his terminally ill mother (Felicity Jones). He befriends a giant, talking tree (voiced and performed in motion-capture by Liam Neeson) who tells him instructive stories that contain lessons the boy will soon need. Majestic and moving, A Monster Calls shows that the things that actually scare us aren’t monsters but the things we’d rather not acknowledge. 

32. Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

In the twilight of the Universal Monsters series came Jack Arnold’s classic swamp horror Creature From the Black Lagoon. Set in the Amazon, a team of scientists - including the beautiful Kay, played by Julia Adams - investigate the origins of a strange skeleton. What they soon find is a face-to-face confrontation with a humanoid fish creature intent on killing them for trespassing. A seminal monster movie that has been remade, homaged, and lampooned endlessly since its release, Creature From the Black Lagoon still keeps a tight grip with timeless artistic designs.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

31. Tremors (1990)

In this loving homage to bygone creature features, Tremors masterfully balances horror and humor, with Kevin Bacon in the lead role as a Nevada handyman trying to outrun ancient, worm-like monsters. The movie originates from writers S.S Wilson and Brent Maddock, who once worked for the U.S. Navy making safety videos. One day while working in the desert, they started imagining a monster rising from out of the land. National Geographic documentarian Ron Underwood provided some assistance to fine-tune their creature into something that could actually exist in real life; Underwood later joined the project as the movie’s director.

30. Gremlins (1984)

One of the few horror movies that works on both Halloween and Christmas, Joe Dante’s Gremlins tells of angry, feral creatures who spawn in great numbers and unleash chaos on Christmas Eve. Combining both Chinese folklore (the creatures are named mogwai , Cantonese for evil demons) and British urban legend (“gremlins” were creatures said to cause malfunctions for Royal Air Force fighters in the skies), Gremlins is classic Amblin-era movie mayhem that is both horrific and hysterical. 

29. The Fly (1986)

One of David Cronenberg’s most buzz-worthy movies, The Fly stars Jeff Goldblum as a scientist who slowly turns into a half-human, half-fly creature after an experiment goes awry. A magnificently creepy that demonstrates Cronenberg’s grotesque body horror sensibilities and makeup effects worthy of an Oscar (the film won an Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 59th ceremony), The Fly is sensational as it is subterranean. 

28. Ringu (1998)

Influential on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, Hideo Nakata’s horror movie Ring (titled Ringu in the U.S.) is easily one of the most important movies of the late 20th century. The movie tells of a cursed video tape in which the viewer must pass it on or else they are doomed to die one week later at the hands of Sadako, a sinister ghost of a dead girl who crawls out of their nearest television screen. Ringu not only reinvigorated the popularity of horror in its native Japan, it also introduced the restrained stylings of J-horror to a rapturous western audience. In 2002, Gore Verbinski directed the Hollywood remake The Ring. While critics remain divided on its quality, The Ring was its own phenomenon, proving that some stories will always travel far.

27. It (2017)

Over 20 years after Stephen King’s 1986 horror epic It became a cult TV miniseries, it went even bigger on the silver screen under the helm of director Andy Muschietti. Featuring an ensemble cast of young actors including Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Finn Wolfhard - plus Bill Skarsgård as the monstrous Pennywise - the movie explores one-half of King’s novel, when the Losers’ Club are adolescents in their small town of Derry, Maine. While the middling sequel It: Chapter Two followed the characters as adults, the 2017 predecessor is a handsome work of blockbuster horror that shows big budgets can still send chills down the spine.

26. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

A dark fantasy classic from Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth is lyrical as it is political in its tale about a young girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) living in Francoist Spain who finds a mythical world inhabited by incredible creatures. It notably features the mesmerizing Doug Jones, appearing in impeccable makeup and costuming as both the Faun and the eerie Pale Man. Pan’s Labyrinth is one of del Toro’s finest movies, brimming with allegory about the hellish ways authority stamps out innocence.

25. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

In this striking debut from director Shinya Tsukamoto, a Japanese salaryman wakes up to find himself slowly turning into a monster with metal hardware protruding out of his body. The only connection he develops is with a victim of a hit-and-run accident, who is also falling ill to the same strange ailment. An elaborate metaphor for intimacy in a distrusting world, Tetsuo: The Iron Man introduced Tsukamoto as a darling of underground cinema and an equal to luminaries like David Cronenberg and David Lynch.

24. King Kong (2005)

Hot off the heels of his groundbreaking, standard-bearing Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson unleashed his maximalist sensibilities in his blockbuster remake of the 1933 classic. A technical marvel with an outrageous budget that ballooned to approximately $207 million, King Kong still wowed audiences to become one of the highest-grossing movies of 2005. While the rights to King Kong would return to Warner Bros. to help expand a shared universe with Godzilla, Jackson’s King Kong is a standalone wonder that still roars with ferocity after all these years.

23. Nope (2022)

The third horror feature from auteur Jordan Peele, Nope is a searing science fiction horror movie about an alien who hides in plain sight and feeds off the organic matter of all living things. While playing on familiar alien invasion conventions - think flying saucers stealing cows from farms - Peele’s Nope carries a razor-sharp bite in its condemnation of the traumatizing ways Hollywood swallows up and spits out people’s dreams. The reveal of the alien “Jean Jacket” and its final form is both frightening and awe-inspiring, echoing the indescribable shapes of heaven’s angels as told in the Bible.

22. Halloween (1978)

A seminal release that permanently set the standard for slasher films, John Carpenter’s mega-hit Halloween introduced the world to Michael Myers (Nick Castle) and destined Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, cinema’s first official “final girl.” On Halloween night, suburban teenager Laurie must survive the clutches of escaped killer Michael Myers, whose ghostly white mask (actually a repainted Captain Kirk mask) is never too far behind. 

21. Horror of Dracula (1958)

Although the 1931 feature Dracula released by Universal Studios is a towering classic that spawned the first real shared movie universe, Terence Fisher’s 1958 version - for British studio Hammer - is arguably even better. Starring Christopher Lee as a devilishly handsome Count Dracula and Peter Cushing as noble hunter Doctor Van Helsing, Horror of Dracula is simply British horror at its best, with more graphic imagery than its American predecessor to remind us all that Dracula is no cartoon mascot. 

20. I Kill Giants (2019)

From Anders Walter and written by Joe Kelly (who co-wrote the original graphic novel with Ken Niimura), I Kill Giants is a fantasy drama about a young girl named Barbara (Madison Wolfe in an unforgettable performance) who frequently escapes into her own imagination - a place where giants walk the Earth - as a coping mechanism from real-world traumas. While everyone around her tries to snap her out of her daydreams, Barbara prepares to make her final stand against the biggest giant she’s ever seen. A cross between Tim Burton’s Big Fish with the video game Shadow of the Colossus, I Kill Giants towers above the competition with moving sincerity.

19. Lamb (2021)

If any movie could feel like a condemnation against millennials infantilizing pets as “fur babies,” it would be Valdimar Jóhannsson’s 2021 feature Lamb. Noomi Rapace stars as a farmer (along with her husband, played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason) who are stunned to discover a half-human, half-sheep baby birthed by one of their animals. The farmers claim the child as their own, unaware that they’ll soon incur the wrath of its true father. Like Jaws, Lamb works so well because you never quite see the “monster” until you’re supposed to, at which point the sight of them becomes enough to turn every hair on your body stark white. 

18. Underwater (2020)

Recognized as the last movie released by 20th Century Fox before changing its name under new owners Disney , William Eubank’s sci-fi horror Underwater is a capable monster feature with a late-addition “twist.” Kirsten Stewart anchors an ensemble cast including Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, and John Gallagher Jr., playing scientists and engineers at a deep sea facility in the Mariana Trench. Powerful earthquakes slowly destroy the facility, compelling the team to make a desperate escape. The end of the movie reveals that the earthquakes are not natural disasters caused by the Earth, but by the monster Cthulhu from H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos. While Underwater was not designed as a Cthulhu movie at first, Eubank chose to make his film based on Cthulhu, believing the entity boasts enough mysticism to inspire mystery.

17. Candyman (1992)

Say his name in the mirror five times - if you dare. Based on a short story by Clive Barker, Bernard Rose’s 1992 film Candyman tells of a spectral entity - an African-American man from the 19th century, killed over an interracial affair with a white woman - who is summoned by verbal chants of his name in front of a mirror. With a smoldering Tony Todd in the lead role, Candyman lives up to the legacy of horror as a way of using monsters to explore what really scares us; in this case, it’s the things from our past we dare not speak.

16. The Invisible Man (2020)

After the Dark Universe failed to take off, Blumhouse and Universal pursued a standalone remake of the 1933 classic The Invisible Man. From director Leigh Whannell and starring Elisabeth Moss, The Invisible Man reboots the story for the 21st century to follow a woman (Moss) who believes she’s being stalked by her deceased ex-lover (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), an affluent tech CEO. An unambiguous exploration of the ways abuse victims feel like they’re fighting a one-sided battle, and that no one else can “see” their victimization, The Invisible Man is a sublime example of how modern remakes can surpass even the most iconic predecessors. 

15. Colossal (2016)

From Nacho Vigalondo, Colossal shows how a monstrous alter-ego can be a source of strength. In Colossal, an unemployed, alcoholic writer (Anne Hathaway) moves back into her childhood home and reconnects with an old friend, Oscar (Jason Sudeikis). In a bizarre twist of fate, Hathaway finds herself psychically connected to a giant monster terrorizing South Korea. A story about female agency and how men can make women feel small, Colossal is simply so much more than its (admittedly appealing) elevator pitch of “Anne Hathaway becomes Godzilla.”

14. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Put it this way: Without An American Werewolf in London, there would be no Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Written and directed by John Landis, An American Werewolf in London follows an American backpack traveler (along with a friend) is attacked by a hideous unidentified creature. Waking up in a hospital in London, the man learns from his friend’s ghost they were attacked by a werewolf - and that he is now one too. An influential film that impeccably balanced comedy and horror, An American Werewolf in London is also remembered for its stunning creature effects. It’s no wonder that Michael Jackson enlisted Landis to turn him into a zombie in what is still one of the greatest music videos of all time.

13. Ghostbusters (1984)

Who you gonna call? Thanks to Ghostbusters, we know what to dial when there’s something strange in the neighborhood. Conceived by comedian Dan Aykroyd based on his own family’s history with the paranormal, Ghostbusters made genre-hybrids popular, allowing audiences - and kids especially - to be excited and scared in equal measure. With memorable monsters like Gozer, the Terror Dogs, and the oversized Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, Ghostbusters is a true monster flick disguised as a going-into-business comedy set in 1980s New York City.

12. The Shape of Water (2017)

Once upon a time, and a long time ago, a young Guillermo del Toro watched Creature From the Black Lagoon and thought the monster and the beautiful woman should actually be in love. Fast forward to 2017, and del Toro releases his tender fantasy romance The Shape of Water, in which a mute janitor at a government facility falls in love with a captive sea creature (played by Doug Jones). Released in a time when hatred was the default setting in national politics, The Shape of Water testifies that only love is the thing that can truly fill our lives. 

11. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

An important release in the canon of horror and American independent cinema, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre famously introduced the crazed Leatherface (played by Gunnar Hansen) into the mainstream. While its story of lost teenagers targeted by cannibal hicks now feels quaint, Hooper’s vision is still striking after all these years. In a 2004 interview with Texas Monthly, Hooper said that he was inspired by a “lack of sentimentality and the brutality of things” in the news, and his belief that “man was the real monster, just wearing a different face, so I put a literal mask on the monster in my film.”

10. The Host (2006)

In his third feature as a director, Bong Joon-ho uses the conventions of monster movies to dive deep into both personal and political matters. When a strange aquatic creature rises to the surface and kidnaps a young girl, her underachieving father (Song Kang-ho) rises to the occasion to rescue her. While The Host, an acclaimed modern classic, is primarily a family drama, Bong Joon-ho lets his claws out to satirize the inefficiencies of governments and intrusive foreign imperialists.

9. Us (2019)

There’s nothing scarier than looking into one’s own eyes. From Jordan Peele is his sophomore horror film from 2019, Us, a chilling blockbuster that plays into the eerie myth of doppelgangers. When a family of four (anchored by lead Lupita Nyong’o as wife/mother Addy) vacation to Addy’s hometown of Santa Cruz, they find themselves targeted by their own evil doubles. While Us is somewhat convoluted in its worldbuilding, it is still a riveting work of art by Peele whose film proposes a most terrifying thought, that being any one of us might actually be a monster.

8. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Godzilla ain’t the only kaiju boss in town. Since his debut in the 1965 film Gamera, the Giant Monster, this prehistoric turtle monster has enjoyed his own legion of fans. In 1995, Godzilla’s producers Toho embarked on an ambitious modern reboot trilogy, beginning with the acclaimed film Gamera: Guardian of the Universe from director Shusuke Kaneko. While it has a pedestrian story, Guardian of the Universe has a more interesting as an accessible alternative to Godzilla, making it ideal for budding kaiju fans eager to try something different. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is Heisei era tokusatsu at its finest, with palpable weight and gravity in the action scenes to make them practically quake with impact.

7. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Ten years after Wes Craven introduced the world to Freddy Kruger, his 1994 film New Nightmare eroded the barriers separating what’s real and what’s make-believe. Set in the “real world,” original Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp plays a version of herself in which she’s stalked by Freddy Kruger, a genuinely evil entity whose movies released by New Line were actually a way to keep him confined. While Craven’s first entry in the series is an undisputed classic, New Nightmare deserves recognition for its genius approach to spicing up the series that had since devolved into empty camp. New Nightmare is the first time in a long time where Freddy feels legitimately dangerous to the point it scares even Robert Englund, who also appears in New Nightmare as himself.

6. The Thing (1982)

Although John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing bombed at the box office, it remains one of the most celebrated horror movies ever made. Set in a faraway research facility in Antarctica, a metamorphing alien parasite ravages a team of American scientists (led by Kurt Russell in an early leading role) who find themselves succumbing to their paranoia. In the end, it doesn’t matter who is human or not. What matters is that any one of us can become just as monstrous when we let fear take control of ourselves.

5. Godzilla Minus One (2023)

In the same era that Warner Bros. pumped out cinematic wrestling matches like Godzilla vs. Kong, Toho also released lean, mean movies like Godzilla Minus One. Maintaining franchise tradition for politically-minded and emotionally-driven stories, Godzilla Minus One is a stand-alone feature about a kamikaze pilot and Godzilla survivor who returns home and starts a “family” with strangers, all of whom lost their own family in the war. But when Godzilla surfaces over Japan - still in economic and psychological recovery from World War II - the pilot decides to follow through on his abandoned mission. This critically acclaimed blockbuster was a surprise success around the world, and even won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

4. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

“We belong dead.” In James Whale’s heart-wrenching sequel to his own 1931 blockbuster Frankenstein, Boris Karloff and Colin Clive return as monster and Dr. Frankenstein, respectively, with the doctor forced to animate a “bride” for his monster. Elsa Lanchester plays the title character, who is also nicknamed Mary Shelley in homage to Frankenstein’s author. While the predecessor film is a monumental classic that did right by Shelley’s novel including its themes of unholy science, Bride of Frankenstein expands on the story, proposing deeper dimensions with regards to sexuality, societal norms, and even romantic rejection.

3. Nosferatu (1922)

All vampires bow to Dracula, but even Dracula knows of one to never cross. Although F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 silent masterpiece Nosferatu is an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel - the Stoker estate even hit the filmmakers with a lawsuit - its fearsome monster Count Orlok is far different, and far more revolting, than Dracula. I mean, just look at him! Portrayed by actor Max Schreck, Count Orlok resembles an ill goblin that has never seen sunlight. Appearing in the silver screen years before Dracula even got his own official movie adaptation, Count Orlok struck fear into the hearts of millions, in a silent movie classic where the lack of noise only makes his gaunt appearance all the more uncanny.

2. Gojira (1954)

All hail the king of the monsters.  In the original Japanese classic by Ishirō Honda, Godzilla rises from the nuclear-poisoned ocean to remind humanity of its imminent annihilation should it continue with its atomic arsenal. Godzilla premiered just over a decade after Japan suffered the only nuclear attacks in history, ensuring that the kaiju and horror genres will always be rooted in political and socio-cultural allegory. Just because the costumes are rubber and the buildings are cardboard doesn’t mean that the truth contained in them aren’t real.

1. Jaws (1975)

The shark, which was nicknamed Bruce, kept breaking down. It was just one of many technical problems that plagued Steven Spielberg on the set of his second feature film Jaws. To circumvent problems, Spielberg decided to only show the shark puppet sparingly on camera. The result is one of the greatest decisions in movie history. With Jaws, there is an unavoidable air of suspense, as this bloodthirsty maneater swimming in the water probably, always, lurking close. In this towering summer horror classic, technical limitations inspired creative ingenuity, and a sense of dread that no one would have thought of if everything worked out so well. Of all the monsters ever in movie history, “the shark” in Jaws probably has the least amount of screentime. But it’s still one of the scariest and deadliest of them all.

Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.

The 32 greatest movies that audiences hated (and critics loved)

The Beast review: "An elegant but ultimately unwieldy sci-fi drama”

No Man's Sky lead teases a second look at Light No Fire, Hello Games' hotly-anticipated open-world game

Most Popular

• 2 Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 review: "Nothing short of video game sorcery"
• 3 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes review: "Totally engrossing, effortlessly stylish, and one of the best puzzle games of 2024"
• 4 Dune: Imperium - Uprising review - "An elegant mix"
• 5 Homeworld 3 review: "Brings the series safely into the modern era"
• 2 The Beast review: "An elegant but ultimately unwieldy sci-fi drama”
• 3 Sting review: "Alien’s influence resonates in this playful creature feature"
• 4 Atlas review: "Netflix's new sci-fi needs more flesh on its AI-themed bones"
• 5 Anora review: "Another hugely enjoyable ride from Sean Baker"
• 2 X-Men ’97 episode 10 review: "A near-perfect ending to an exciting and tumultuous season"
• 3 Doctor Who season 1 episode 3 review: "Steven Moffat’s return with 'Boom' is an instant classic"
• 4 Demon Slayer season 4, episode 1 review: "Comes perilously close to the dreaded f-word – filler – at times"
• 5 Orphan Black: Echoes review - Krysten Ritter and co try their best in unimaginative sci-fi spin-off

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

For a few minutes, “Arcadian” basically becomes “ Aliens ” on an Irish farm with Nicolas Cage in the Ripley role. That might be the best elevator pitch I've ever heard. You know if you want to sign up for that or not. Don’t get me wrong. This is not James Cameron-level filmmaking, but it is an effective creature feature that avoids a lot of the traps of post-apocalyptic horror (which has really been a thing lately, especially at this year’s SXSW) and delivers on its premise. It truly feels like “The Walking Dead” and now maybe “The Last of Us” have spawned a wave of films about how humans respond when civilization collapses—“Arcadian” is one of the better entries in this growing genre about how screwed we all are.

“Arcadian” opens with Paul (Cage) fleeing what is obviously the end of the civilization, represented by sirens and explosions buried in the sound design, off in the distance. In a hiding spot, he cradles two infant twin boys. Cut to fifteen years later, when Paul lives with his teen sons Joseph ( Jaeden Martell ) and Thomas ( Maxwell Jenkins ). We’re introduced to these characters in a moment of panic as Thomas hasn’t returned home from the nearby Rose Farm, and the sun is going down. It’s clear that people don’t like to be out after dark.

A brief bit of character development at a table sets up the fact that Thomas is the more instinctual, risk-taking brother, while Joseph seems more intellectual, interested in figuring out how to progress beyond just survival. The trio boards up all windows and doors at night, moving to a higher floor, and then something tries to get in, leaving scratch marks on the door that look like moving blades were trying to chop it down. Those aren’t your ordinary wolf claws that did that. After spending a bit too long with the cute Rose daughter Charlotte (a very effective Sadie Soverall ), Thomas falls as he’s running home, getting stuck in the woods after dark. Dad goes out to save him. Things get really weird. And then director Benjamin Brewer and writer Michael Nilon drop their bomb in one of the best genre scenes in a very long time. Without spoiling it, let’s just say it involves a sleeping Joseph, an open panel in a door, and a wide shot that feels like it goes on forever in order to ratchet up maximum tension.

It turns out that what’s out in those woods is absolute nightmare fuel. It feels like Brewer asked his creative team to bring in every creature design idea they could and then just said, “Let’s just do em ALL.” At its core, the monster kind of looks like a primate produced an offspring with a xenomorph. There’s the almost crawling, twisting energy of the H.R. Giger monster but there’s so much hair and teeth and I don’t even know what. One of the main reasons “Arcadian” works is that Brewer knows how to hide his budget in quick shots of the creatures that don’t feel like cheap obfuscation as much as terrified glimpses. You don’t want to see this thing all at once. You couldn’t handle it. Every time, you think you know what the Hell these things are, they have a new level of insane design. In one of the death scenes, it just becomes a never-ending maw of teeth and fluid and blood and who the hell knows what. There have been some truly mediocre creatures in horror films lately, and “Arcadian” proves how essential it is for the things that are supposed to terrify the character to be, you know, actually terrifying.

Having said that, there are some choices in “Arcadian,” especially early, that work against it. It feels like Brewer was too nervous that people would get bored during the set-up, and so he goes full shaky-cam with cinematographer Frank Mobilio . There’s no reason for early scenes in a film like this to be shot like a Bourne movie. And Cage-heads should be warned that this isn’t really his movie as much as Martell's, Jenkins', and even Soverall’s. They’re all good, but I worry that people going in expecting another “ Mandy ” will be disappointed. This is subdued Cage, one who knows that he's more of a support for his young co-stars, the human and the creature.

Ultimately, “Arcadian” might not have much character development or world building for some people, but, again, the creature design overwhelms that common flaw in this genre. There’s no time to talk about why the world fell apart of even develop much of a personality when THAT comes knocking every night.

This review was filed from the premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It opens nationwide on April 12 th , 2024.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Taking Venice

Matt zoller seitz.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Robert daniels.

Art College 1994

Simon abrams.

Boy Kills World

Film Credits

Arcadian (2024)

Nicolas Cage as Paul

Jaeden Martell as Joseph

Maxwell Jenkins as Thomas

Sadie Soverall as Charlotte

Samantha Coughlan as Mrs. Rose

Joel Gillman as Hobson

• Benjamin Brewer
• Michael Nilon

Latest blog posts

Neon’s Five Palme d’Or Winners, Ranked

The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Unveils Its Official Selection

Saved! at 20: Religious Satire and the Millennial Generation

Killer Klowns from Outer Space Is a Total Blast