Writer/director Caroline Lindy’s horror comedy Your Monster is a sharp, sweet short film that explores relationships with lovers and friends — while wryly commenting on social topics such as gender neutrality — through the eyes and mindset of a young woman and the monster that has lived in her bedroom closet since she was a child.
As the short starts, Laura (Kimiko Glenn) is being dumped by her selfish boyfriend Jacob (Scott Michael Foster), who doesn’t want to help her through an operation and recovery period. She moves into her childhood home, but her mother has suddenly left her alone. Her best friend calls to cancel her visit as Laura is recovering after surgery.
Things obviously aren’t going swimmingly for Laura, but her life is about to take a strange turn. She meets the monster (Tommy Dewey) that has lived in her closet and watched over her since she was a baby. The two begin to form a bond, and I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoiler territory.
Glenn does a great job as the struggling Laura, playing the character as a meek — and sometimes easily distracted — young woman going through a difficult time made even weirder by the sudden appearance of her closet monster. Dewey delivers big time as that character, playing the creature as a wise-cracking, philosophical type. His comic timing is spot on, and the chemistry between him and Glenn is crackling. One particular humorous sequence sees the pair having an increasingly awkward time saying goodnight to each other, which captures the fun vibe of Your Monster wonderfully.
Lindy has crafted an insightful, well-written, deftly directed, touching horror comedy short with a lot to say and a sweet character arc for its protagonist and her lifelong monster in her closet. Your Monster recently captured the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival’s First-Runner Up prize for its Audience Awards, and it is a well-deserved win.
Your Monster screened as part of the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, which ran from February 4–7, 2021.
(4 / 5)
He is a contributing writer for the "Phantom of the Movies VideoScope" and “Drive-In Asylum” print magazines and the websites Horror Fuel, Diabolique Magazine, The Scariest Things, B&S About Movies, and When It Was Cool. He is a co-host of the "Uphill Both Ways" pop culture nostalgia podcast and also writes for its website. Joseph occasionally proudly co-writes articles with his son Cohen Perry, who is a film critic in his own right.
A former northern Californian and Oregonian, Joseph has been teaching, writing, and living in South Korea since 2008.
