How is Caroline Lindy doing this? The American writer-director’s auspicious debut sustains a tonal balancing act so audacious and death-defying that you’d normally expect a spectacular tumble.
Broadway ingenue Laura (a never-better Melissa Barrera, keeping pace with Lindy’s genre swerves) is diagnosed with cancer just as her rubbish boyfriend (Edmund Donovan) dumps her – mid-chemo, no less – to return to the musical that she helped him write and that she was supposed to star in.
It’s a moment that’s both heartbreakingly raw and Reddit-problem-sub absurd, and Lindy leans into both extremes, as the game Barrera wrings humour, pathos and emotion from every post-break-up carb binge.
So far so romcom.
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Enter the Monster (Tommy Dewey), a shaggy, forgotten figure from Laura’s childhood closet, who returns to terrorise – and assist – her through a snot-nosed emotional breakdown. Picture Ron Perlman’s character in the 1980s TV series Beauty and the Beast reimagined as a sighing, sardonic millennial, all quips, claws and codependency. Dewey wants Laura out of the house, but the interspecies chemistry proves too strong.
Much of Your Monster could be a snarky self-help title, as Laura finds her voice, sense of worth and rage with the help of her bestial companion. It’s one way to get through bitter rehearsal-room sessions as Laura finds herself playing understudy while her toxic ex fawns over her replacement, the shiny Broadway babe Jackie (Meghann Fahy, from the second season of The White Lotus).
Just when we’ve settled into genre convention – the genre being riotous, wrenching monster comedy – Lindy throws a late curveball, steering the traumatised heroine into a full-blown horror climax, replete with an emotionally overwrought musical number.
Songs from The Lazours and the veteran blockbuster composer Timothy Williams add Broadway sparkle to the break-up woe and creature-feature puppy love. An appropriately monstrous hit with audiences at London’s Sundance and Dublin’s Horrorthon festivals, this is not quite a fairy tale, but it comes close enough to cast a spell.
Premieres on Sky Cinema on Monday, June 9th
