YOUR MONSTER (2024)

4 stars

Vertigo Releasing. UK and Ireland Cinemas. Out Now

Laura (Melissa Barrera) is recovering in hospital after having surgery to stop her cancer spreading. This opening sequence is set to “Put on a Happy Face” from “Bye Bye Birdie”! A clever counterpoint to what transpires and setting gather to tone for what follows. She is understandably upset when her long term boyfriend Jacob (Edmond Donovan) tells her he can’t deal with it and leaves her to cope on her own. We learn through flashbacks that they have been working together on a musical for Broadway – and that he had promised her the lead… which of course is now not the case.

Returning to her mother’s house, which was also her childhood home, she spends her time recuperating and in tears most of the time. All alone as her mum is away travelling. Then one night she hears a noise – and discovers a creature in her bedroom closet, who she dubs Monster (Tommy Dewey). He tells her that she should recognise him from her childhood, but also demands that she moves out as she is disturbing him! He gives her two weeks – just enough time for the inevitable to happen, as they get to know each other. I am sure you can guess where that is heading!

Learning that there are auditions for the musical she and Jacob had been working on, called “House of Good Women” and set in a finishing school for girls, Laura decides to go along and Jacob begrudgingly gives her a part and to understudy the lead – which has been given to Jackie, a famous TV actress (played by Meghan Fahy, recently in WHITE LOTUS).

Is this Laura’s chance to get her revenge on her a-hole ex? 

This is the debut feature film of writer and director Caroline Lindy and she has crafted a winning and fun concoction of romantic comedy, with a dash of horror, a splash of fantasy and topped off with a musical, but also exploring how a young woman copes with a traumatic time in their lives and how it manifests itself. The ever watchable Barrera is familiar to horror fans, what with the SCREAM movies and ABIGAIL (2024), but also to musicals fans, with IN THE HEIGHTS (2021). She is well matched by Dewey, as the beast to her beauty. I have to say I really enjoyed this slice of slightly silly entertainment.

Steve Kirkham