The Monster Project (2017) Directed by Victor Mathieu




Oh, great. Another found footage flick. But you know what? It actually manages to find an original angle to things, which makes it quite good to watch. Well, for most part that is. Since about halfway-through it takes a turn for the worst and turns into a very formulaic and mostly ineffective genre movie.

It is good to see how this movie isn't just another lazy found footage production, made to make a few quick bucks, without any imagination or true effort behind it. This movie actually tries to really feature a story in it, and an original one as well. I liked the whole interview angle to the movie, since it didn't make the movie rely on any of the generic found footage horror clichés and cheap scares. It makes it all the more disappointing that as the movie progress it begins to become a more and more generic one, with indeed all of the formulaic genre clichés and cheap scares.

It is therefore fair to say that this is half successful movie, though the movie still definitely does more things wrong than right. It for instance never is the most convincing movie story-wise. It is quite ridicules how the main characters basically out of nowhere decide to go 'monster' hunting and become experts on the field. But the absolutely worst aspect about this movie remains Jamal Quezaire as Jamal. He is one of the absolute worst and most annoying movie characters I have seen in a while. Or rather said; heard in a while. His constant yelling, joking and dialog is absolutely terrible. Granted that this isn't all Quezaire's fault, but fact remains that he is absolutely unbearable.

It still remains a pretty decent looking movie. Most of the time special effects feel out of place and even somewhat annoying in these type of movies, but in this case it really adds something, since it is mostly subtle. It also is pretty well going movie, despite a somewhat slow start, in which it is still unclear what direction the movie is going to take things at. It is not the most focused movie and it does have plenty of needless distractions and far too random moments in it , but things still manage to flow well and aren't too bad to watch, with the exception of the movie its earlier mentioned 30 minutes or so. The twists are also absolutely terrible, mostly because they come out of nowhere. I definitely zoned out a bit during its final minutes as well. It was just too generic and uninteresting to watch.

Some good and original elements in this remotely decent genre attempt, but overall I still can't recommend it to anyone. Maybe only if you are really, really into the genre and are in the mood for something that is trying to do something that is a bit different.

5/10

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