Your Monster

Your Monster is a 2024 American romantic comedy horror film written and directed by Caroline Lindy, based on her 2019 short film. The film stars Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey, with Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster, and Meghann Fahy in supporting roles.

Your Monster had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2024. The film was released in the United States on October 25, 2024, by Vertical.

Plot

Laura Franco is a young actress enduring a cancer diagnosis. She tries to cope after being dumped by her playwright boyfriend Jacob Sullivan, whose play she helped him write prior to their split.

Her friend Mazie drives Laura to her childhood home in Manhattan, where she is forced to live following the break-up. During her stay, she hears noises and discovers a monster in the house, living in the closet upstairs. Though initially frightened by him and his demands for her to move out, Laura and Monster bond over their shared love of theater, and Monster agrees to let her stay for two weeks.

Monster convinces Laura to show up for auditions to Jacob's play, particularly for the main role which Jacob originally wrote for Laura to star as. Jacob refuses to cast her, instead choosing another actress named Jackie Dennon, but offers Laura to understudy for Jackie instead. Laura struggles to watch Jacob and Jackie's apparent flirtations during rehearsals, but finds solace at home with Monster. Laura invites him to a Halloween party hosted by the theater. He refuses, but arrives later and dances with Laura among the other partygoers, but their fun is cut short when Laura discovers Jacob hooking up with a woman, presumably Jackie. Using his powers, Monster distracts Jacob towards a nearby trapdoor that opens and drops him to the floor below, injuring his arm.

Laura excoriates Monster for the incident, but he convinces her that Jacob breaking up with her amidst her cancer treatment was not okay. They return to the house to have sex. At another rehearsal, Jackie learns from a castmate about Jacob and Laura's past. She later struggles to perform on stage and is berated by Jacob, but Laura comes to her defense, unloading all of her resentment towards Jacob for their break-up. Laura meets Jacob that evening to discuss what happened. They hook up in his office, but Jacob breaks the news that Laura has been fired from the production.

Laura returns home to find Monster in the closet. She discovers his hidden home, filled with articles of her clothes and other items taken over the years. She reveals the hook-up to Monster, angering him greatly, but she accuses him of not knowing anything about love because he is a monster and has always been hiding. Monster reveals he has not been hiding, recounting other occasions during Laura's life when he tried to help her but she barred him in the closet out of fear. Laura leaves and shuts the closet, but opens it again out of regret, only to find that Monster has disappeared.

Following a hospital visit, Laura is declared cancer-free, but she does not delight in the news. Jackie meets Laura outside her home to apologize for "stealing" Jacob, but Laura shrugs it off and says that people hook up. Jackie clarifies that she and Jacob have never had relations, and arranges for Laura to take her place as lead role on the play's opening night. While sneaking into the building, Laura catches Jacob and Mazie having sex. Mazie follows Laura to the dressing room to apologize, but Laura tells her to leave.

Laura appears on stage and performs, to Jacob's shock and rage. Her performance is well received by the audience, but Jacob confronts her alone behind the curtains, accusing her of jealousy and selfishness. Monster then appears from the shadows and tears Jacob's throat open, after which the curtains open and a bloodstained Laura performs the final song. At the end, Monster is absent from the stage, revealing that he is actually Laura's inner "monster" and never truly existed. The crowd panics over the sight of Jacob's corpse as Laura smiles and lets out a monstrous growl.

Cast

• Melissa Barrera as Laura Franco
• Tommy Dewey as Monster
• Edmund Donovan as Jacob Sullivan
• Meghann Fahy as Jackie Dennon
• Kayla Foster as Mazie Silverberg
• Ikechukwu Ufomadu as Don McBride

Production

Your Monster is from Merman Productions. Lindy and Kayla Foster produced, with Shannon Reilly from Bombo Sports and Entertainment, and Kira Carstensen and Melanie Donkers for Mermade. Barrera described the project to Collider as an "incredible indie movie that was so satisfying to me. And I've realized how smaller films are more creatively satisfying in a way because you get a lot more say, and it's like a real team effort. It's like basically everyone is kind of sacrificing a lot to do this very low budget thing and make it look good and make it the best that it can be, and having the highest hopes for something knowing that you don't have the huge back of a studio. I think it makes you hungrier." With news of the project coming soon after the release of her second film in the Scream franchise made some call Barrera the new "scream queen".

Filming

The film was shot in twenty days in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Release

Your Monster premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2024. In March 2024, Vertical acquired North American distribution rights to the film. The film was released in the United States on October 25, 2024.

Home media

Your Monster was released on premium video on demand on November 12, 2024. The film began streaming on Max on January 24, 2025.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Your Monster made $522,958 from 651 theaters in its opening weekend. The film went to have an even smaller limited release in the United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand, grossing a worldwide total of $809,893.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 79% of 98 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A wickedly delightful genre mashup led by Melissa Barrera, Your Monster is pleasantly packed with songs, guts, and heart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

The Nashville Film Festival praised Barrera, saying, "There are very few people who can light up the screen the way that Melissa Barrera does. The multi-talented actress displays the perfect level of innocence, vulnerability, and eventually fierceness in her portrayal as Laura Franco."

Ben Kenigsberg, writing in The New York Times, praised the natural charm and emotional pull of Melissa Barrera character of Laura Franco by saying the film works with the "backstage intrigue, onstage songs by the Lazours, and the disarming lead performance of Barrera."

Chad Collins of Dread Central stated "Your Monster is liable to be the most fun you have at the movies this year, perhaps in the past several years. Writer and director Caroline Lindy’s feature debut is remarkably assured, ostensibly retelling Beauty and the Beast, though imbued with oodles of charm, a smattering of horror gore, and a truly star-making turn from Melissa Barrera. Truly, Barrera, while a star before Your Monster, ascends to an entirely different level here." The Hollywood Reporter ranked the film number 10 out of the best horror films of 2024, calling Melissa Barrera a "welcoming force" in the horror world.

Accolades

Notes

External links

• at IMDb