by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $11.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mason Thames, Mel Gibson, Julian Lerner, Abby James Witherspoon, Noah Cottrell, Nora Zehetner, Lorraine Bracco
Intro:
... an adequate attempt at Stephen King pastiche ...
After his Disney-Channel-in-all-but-name directorial debut This is the Year, Disney actor turned director David Henrie’s follow-up shows him sticking to material aimed at younger audiences, but without the made-for-TV sheen. Right from the first frame, DP Larry Blanford creates a chilly and morbid atmosphere which works a treat for backing up the main story concerning a witch hunting down children on a small New England island. The story itself has its twee moments, but the production values keep it on the right side of spoopy.
From the setting to the horror overtones to the story about kids fighting a supernatural evil that the adults refuse to engage with, right down to casting The Black Phone’s Mason Thames in the lead, Monster Summer sets itself up as a cut from the Stephen King cloth. However, the script actively struggles with delivering on that kind of story. Writers Cornelius Uliano and Bryan (grandson of Charles M.) Schulz are more familiar with Peanuts than anything resembling horror, and that shows through in the wonky pacing. For the bulk of the runtime, it doesn’t feel like much progress is being made, aside from the witch’s body count.
It doesn’t help that one of one of Mason Thames’ amateur journalist’s biggest blunders leads to Mel Gibson’s retired detective uttering the line “One wrong accusation can ruin a person’s reputation forever.” Yikes.
And the yikes don’t stop there, as the ultimate threat of this whole thing (the witch) is framed with some… interesting choices. While the visuals for her taking the souls of children is clearly inspired by the Deadlights from It, it could also be described literally as her flashing children, leaving them traumatised. This combined with her civilian guise makes her into what appears to be an attempt to validate a certain kind of mass panic, one that has been getting an alarming amount of traction in recent years. By the time the big reveal takes place, it’s difficult to watch this without thinking of any number of (debunked) claims about predators lurking in public bathrooms, and wondering how much of those stories the filmmakers are legitimately buying into. Horror as a genre is regularly used to externalise genuine fears, after all.
Monster Summer is an adequate attempt at Stephen King pastiche, but not only is the attempt skin-deep in understanding what makes that style work, it’s also being used to tell a story with questionable motives. Even if this is all unintentional, it still makes the film increasingly tricky to sit through, as the entertainment value isn’t nearly high enough.
