It’s perhaps pretty inevitable that ideas and anxieties about social media stardom have begun spilling into horror cinema. As a relatively new means of attaining wealth and stature presents itself, and as new risks to autonomy and privacy come along, the human imagination begins to ponder all the things which could go awry. Tragedy Girls (2017) depicted two social media-obsessed teenagers who transform their minor stardom into something big when they begin documenting real-life murders in their town; last year’s Assassination Nation looked at the real-life threats caused by a data breach where the deepest, darkest secrets of people’s social media usage were exposed. We’re primed for this kind of thing. Making Monsters melds elements of ideas present in the films mentioned above, but more overtly marries these to what is by and large a slasher movie – albeit one which hinges upon the potentially malign presence of the internet. It’s a very watchable, often imaginative film, even if one which struggles in places to sustain all of its ideas (and there are far worse crimes than that in debut features).
Chris (Tim Loden) and Allie (Alana Elmer) are a young, engaged couple who make a living through their online videos. Precisely, Chris is a prankster, and the person he exclusively pranks? Allison. This has been massively popular, with millions of hits and a successful social media presence – but Allison, who is on the verge of IVF treatment, wants Chris to stop. She argues that she is about to go through a great deal and constantly being made to jump out of her skin will help their chances of conceiving none. Chris is very disappointed by this request and how it could impact upon his brand, but he’s cheered up a little when, upon leaving a fertility clinic with Allie, he runs into Jessie, an old friend of his. Jessie is living in a big, renovated church out in the boonies and he immediately invites them to come and stay that weekend – it’ll be a great chance to catch up, and an opportunity for them to meet his husband, David. The couple agree, and that weekend they make their way there.
They’re greeted not by Jessie but David (Jonathan Craig), an odd character to say the least, but he soon deadpans them into a state of ease. Unfortunately, Jessie’s flight has been severely delayed and he won’t be able to join them until the following morning; never mind, David reassures them, it’s a chance for them all to get to know one another a little better via a total drink-and-drugs blow-out. This they do. In fact, by the time Allison comes to, the house is ice cold, David is nowhere to be seen and she is having severe difficulties getting a handle on what time it even is. Her disorientation is not helped by the fact that she begins to see visions of deformed supernatural entities which seem to be trying to communicate something to her. Are they really there, or is this another facet of a trip which has clearly gone horribly, horribly wrong?
When she and Chris locate each other, they slowly attempt to piece together events of the previous evening (if indeed it was an evening ago). It’s clear that something has gone badly wrong somewhere – Jessie hasn’t appeared and his husband is still MIA – so they decide to leave. That, unfortunately for them, is not so easy. Then there’s the small matter of the surveillance cameras they notice…
Making Monsters successfully adds a few twists and turns in its plot that I didn’t necessarily expect, which is to its credit, and much of the film’s overall success depends on the good acting performances of the three leads as the power dynamic shifts around and the film heads off in its different directions. Some of these shifts raise an eyebrow in that early plot motifs disappear (or at least don’t figure highly after all) and as the narrative shifts, there are a couple of minor lulls in the action. However, Making Monsters does raise a few interesting ideas along the way: what substitutes entertainment? Where is the line to be drawn between real life and online life, and do we now have a generation of people for whom this is a problem? What is fame, and what is it worth? All the while, though, this is a fairly grisly film, one which may come to resemble a certain older genre in the end (with the visual tropes of that genre) but nonetheless rewards the attention it demands.
This is the first feature-length film from director Justin Harding, alongside co-director Rob Brunner. I’m familiar with Harding from a short film he made called Latched, which has burned its way into my memory forever; I’ll say no more as I think it deserves to be burned into your memories too. In any case, even from my limited experience of his work, he’s clearly a guy with ideas and a particularly effective way of presenting them on screen; I hope he continues to make horror movies, as the range of ideas on offer in Making Monsters is a pleasing thing. Any film which can go from black humour to gory fare and make both work is something to be proud of.