Book of Monsters

A lot of enthusiasm went into Book of Monsters. Far more enthusiasm than budget, unfortunately. This ultimately makes Book of Monsters the rare movie that looks like it would be more fun to make than to watch.

As a child, Sophie watched her mother be killed by a monster living under her bed. A decade later, Sophie’s 18th birthday is approaching. Her friend, Mona helps plan a party and invites everyone in school, despite Sophie’s unpopularity. But this is all a cover so they can invite Sophie’s crush, Jess. The party is one for the books (of monsters). A mysterious woman in red shows up and spills virgin blood. In doing so, five monsters are summoned to Sophie’s party. Sophie has to learn about her mother’s past, her own future and use her mother’s book of monsters to keep herself and her friends alive.

The queer element of Book of Monsters is admirably handled. This is yet another film that proves how far queer cinema has come. Sophie’s sexuality is very matter of fact. A mean girl calls her a lesbo in an early scene. But other than that? Her lesbianism isn’t remotely an issue in the film. This is a horror comedy. Sophie’s concerns are related to all these damn creatures at her party. The fact that her teen crush is another girl doesn’t factor in to any of it. Book of Monsters is ultimately positive or, “good” queer representation. Though good gay rep doesn’t mean the movie itself is any good.

The ambition of Book of Monsters far exceeds its practical realities. This isn’t just a horror movie, but a splatter-heavy creature feature. And unfortunately, Book of Monsters is very, very cheap. In some ways, I can admire their budgeting. It’s obvious that the priority on spending was the creatures and the horror scenes. But even those scenes show the film’s budget limitations. And the scenes that don’t have a lovingly rendered monster in them? Those look worse still, as that’s clearly not where the budget priority was.

The overall cheap look of the movie is one of many things that really brings Book of Monsters down. Many horror scenes suddenly take on a very jerky editing style to try and cut around the limitations. As much as I understand why they did this, it doesn’t make it look any better. There’s also a weird lack of incidental music and atmospheric sound. Horror and comedy are both genres that can really benefit from a good soundscape. Book of Monsters doesn’t have that. So, both horror and comedy scenes often fall flat. Also, all of these teenagers look 35.

Book of Monsters seems to have ambitions on being an inclusive yet edgy splatter comedy. That’s a lot of adjectives. Mostly, the film just ends up being sort of dorky. It’s neither scary nor funny enough to work as a horror comedy. And it’s just not a good-looking or good-sounding film. I’ll give it some points for the casual inclusion of a lesbian lead character in a story that doesn’t hinge on sexuality. But even there, it’s 2023. The points awarded for treating lesbians like people and depicting them at all don’t really go that far.

Overall rating: 4.1/10

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