Directed By David Henrie

Starring – Mel Gibson, Lorraine Bracco, Mason Thames

The Plot – When a mysterious force begins to disrupt their big summer fun, Noah (Thames) and his friends team up with a retired police detective (Gibson) to embark on a monstrous adventure to save their island.

Rated PG-13 for some violence and terror

MONSTER SUMMER Official Trailer (2024) Mel Gibson, Fantasy Movie HD (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Some films are simply a product of perfect timing, and in the case of ‘Monster Summer’, releasing after the final days of summer, yet during the peak of the Halloween season, fills a seasonal gap for scary kid movies that feel few and far between anymore, with elements of heart and nostalgia that provide effortful emphasis for Henrie and the cross-generational appeal of his production. While substantially challenging for childlike audiences in ways they’re unfamiliar with, ‘Monster Summer’ does serve as a nostalgic throwback for adult audiences, who in growing up with films like ‘Monster Squad’ and ‘The Goonies’, get to sample the best qualities of those films in ways that homage without downright ripping them off completely. In addition, The small town setting is a throwback to Halloween movies of the past, with an isolation factor and intimate group of colorful characters that gives the movie such a distinct personality, keeping it interesting even when the storytelling seems to saunter a bit. Particularly, the dynamic between Thames and Gibson’s respective characters proved much vital to the integrity of the picture, with Gibson’s red herring of a character unraveling towards an appealing friendship with Thames that takes the investigation of this conflict miles, especially considering they are the driving force to many of its developments. The two persevere urgently in a race against the clock towards resolving much of the island’s mysterious child disappearances, but never at the cost of some palpable humor in chemistry between them and the film’s dominant tonal capacity, keeping things mostly light-hearted throughout an engagement that could’ve easily lost itself in the depths of dramatic backstories or darkly foreboding enemies, all in giving us frights that never compromise the value of a fun factor for first step attempts towards the genre of horror. On top of this, the film is obviously limited by its minimalized budget, but makes the most within a presentation that continuously remains atmospherically scenic, with technique behind the lens that substitutes flare for experience. Cinematographer Larry Blanford, who has worked on epic productions pertaining to the X-Men and Planet of the Apes franchises, truly pitches a beauty here, with spellbinding establishing shots and meaningful framing among the imagery that continuously maintains that sense of geographic distinction to where the story is based, all within the texture of a luminating canvas that seamlessly exudes the crisp and colorful radiance of Fall’s inevitability. Lastly, I touched on the appeal of some of the characters, and that’s due in credit to the meaningful work from Gibson and Thames, who each command so much big screen appeal to the respect of character outlines, providing each of them a memorable turn among the movie’s grandest qualities. Gibson has quietly done a few films since his public shaming, but here the expected and proven charisma exudes with an underlining loneliness and longing towards the character that garners empathetic investment to his defined humanity, affording us ample reminder of how captivating he truly can be to a film’s investing appeal. Thames, a bit removed from his breakthrough turn in 2021’s ‘The Black Phone’, has emotional dexterity that you don’t find believably or naturally among peer actors of his age, and though Gibson gets top billing as a result of his storied past on-screen, Thames is real show-stealer, driving the narrative with the kind of demanding curiosity that makes him feel fearless, all in an approach to personality that doesn’t require precociousness to feel compelling.

NEGATIVES

Despite charms in the appeal of its personality and even familiarity, ‘Monster Summer’ is plagued by a hollow screenplay that unfortunately doesn’t invest a lot of excitement or ambiguity to its encompassing mystery, leaving it predictably telegraphed from as early as the opening twenty minutes, where a knowledgeable audience waits patiently for the characters to catch up. While the film has a couple of red herrings to throw a wrench in where you would expect the film to head with its direction, the big reveal spoils itself in embellishing dialogue and rule-making during the first act that leaves its list of suspects feeling compromisingly small, where easily 90% of its audience should capably be able to see exactly where the script is headed. Because the script deviates little from expectations, it leaves the mystery feeling phoned in to cater towards a child audience that don’t coherently interpret the telegraphed signs, in turn deducing the investment of the adults, who have clearly seen this all play out before. If the film occasionally produced some kind of compelling urgency in adventurous sequences then it could’ve been forgiven for constructing The script also has noticeable issues with gap storytelling, in which it introduces an arc, but then never further elaborates on it towards having any kind of resonance to the unfolding events. Such an example persists in both the established setting of 1997, which never goes anywhere creatively, and the introduced subplot of this girl between best friends who Noah reveals to have feelings for. In my opinion, these things could’ve been omitted from the finished product, and the film would’ve lost nothing for it, but considering they’re given focus and time to the development of the plot, the lack of pursuing leaves it strangely feeling like some scenes were left on the cutting room floor, establishing no kind of justification as to why they’re even included to what’s shown or told. Aside from the script, the film’s aforementioned production values don’t go unphased with the clarity of budgetary limitations, as some special effects decisions during the first and third acts stand out like the kind of sore thumb that has been run over by a Metro bus. I would wholeheartedly expect a movie like this to use computer-generation in a cheaply effective manner to materialize the special powers of its unforeseen adversary, but when they come at the cost of visual renderings that feel cheaply campy and comedic, it eviscerates tension from the most important moments, in turn feeling like something you would see on the Disney Channel, but during the same kind of 1997 that the story is framed around. Considering the tonal consistency for the film already has enough of an uphill climb in simultaneously appealing to two generations of audience who couldn’t be any different in their expectations for the film, the effects work makes it all the more difficult to coherently interpret, imbedding a few noticeable tonal shifts along the way, which play particularly erratic to the sequencing of events during the third act, all in looking as lifelessly hollow and unintentionally laughable in their usage. Finally, even the title of the movie is a bit misleading, as the opposition lurking in the shadows isn’t exactly monsters, regardless of how many times the script and its characters go out of their way to call them such. The evil in question is actually a witch, so the two word title is merely a descriptive error from its characters, but one that doesn’t make it an accurate summary of what’s being depicted, which could definitely alienate unsuspecting audiences expecting one thing, then realizing something completely else.

OVERALL
‘Monster Summer’ should prove to be an entertaining diversion for first time audiences into the genre, with little to no preconceived expectations of what a thriller should be, but for experienced parties a blandly derivative and formulaic adventure horror without enough of either to maintain their faithful investment. Despite meaningfully merited performances from Gibson and Thames, who conjure an intoxicatingly fun dynamic between them, the film errors too far on the side of nostalgic caution, without truly appraising anything refreshing or unique to the legacy of its predecessors, resulting in another descendent of superior predecessors that fails to understand what them monstrous achievements to begin with.

My Grade: 5/10 or D+