Macabre…ish Horror Review: Making Monsters
Making Monsters, 2019/ 1 hr 25 min.
A naked, bloody man runs for his life, he’s being hunted like an animal by a person with a gun, riding a four wheeler and wearing a mask. While he screams this person takes a lot of joy in brutalizing him. Finally, he’s tied to the back of a four wheeler and dragged away, leaving an arm behind.
While a woman is shopping for her wedding dress, she is pranked by her Youtuber fiancé, who is streaming live inside the dress shop. Christian (Tim Loden) is a hugely popular youtuber with ten million followers. Most of his pranks are played on his wife-to-be, Allison (Alana Elmer). He considers her, his muse.
They run into an old friend, Jesse (King Chiu), who now lives in the country in a church and he wants them to come out. Meanwhile, Allie wants the pranks to stop because they are trying for a baby. Christian is not happy because that is all his channel is about.
They arrive at the church and meet David (Jonathan Craig), Jesse’s fiancé, and he’s a disgruntled odd duck. The place is really nice, Jesse’s work is spread throughout, his work are heads. He’s a monster artist and there are heads everywhere. And David is a treasure hunter. While showing them around, he says their backyard is a graveyard without the stones but still full of bodies. And bad news, Jesse still hasn’t arrived and David says he won’t until the next day.
David confesses to being a huge fan, having seen all of their videos. So they drink, eat, do shrooms and hang out. The substances make David more likable and fun. But later on, Allison is having terrifying hallucinations but she and Christian manage to get in the mood. And still those hallucinations persist and Allison is terrified.
Christian wakes up later and not only is Allison gone but the electricity is out and it’s freezing. He calls out and can’t find David either, then he spots Allie outside in the snow, naked. She’s just standing in the middle of the backyard, staring into space. Christians wraps her in his blanket and carries her back into the house. She’s still out of it. When she finally speaks she says ‘We gotta go.’ But Christian doesn’t listen.
Allison wants to know how long they’ve been there, they look at the flowers and they are long dead. But they’ve only been there 12 hours or so they think. They hurry to gather their stuff and go but can’t find the phone. On the news on a radio, they say it’s April 6th, which is four days later.
When they go to leave, their car is gone. So they search for their phones again. While searching, Allison finds a camera, hiding in a painting, pointing right at the bed. And Allison is still having serious hallucinations. They decide to just walk. All the while, someone’s watching. Unfortunately, they have to go back because Allison forgot her IVF meds.
They don’t know how bad their situation is until something grabs Allison and drags her away. To her it looks like a monster but it’s invisible to Christian. She’s dragged down into the cellar. Chris follows and breaks down the door and inside in Allie sitting at a computer, connected to a genny. On the PC is video of their visit plus a bitcoin order from TOR and promise of a show that includes torture. The entire house is rigged for video. They see recordings of themselves in bed, being drugged.
There are also other seasons and Chris sees his friend Jesse on season three. David is not who he says he is this is his show. Further back in the cellar, there’s a room and a man is in there, nude and barely alive. It’s Jesse! They collect him to leave but when they turn around someone is standing there in a mask with a gun. He goes to the computer to check the chat which is full of people making suggestions as to what to do to them or make them do.
The masked man decides to make Allison dance. It devolves into death quick and Allison runs for her life. The masked man is struggling to find her and when he goes for the four wheeler, she buries a pitch fork through the back of his head, prongs stick out of his face and neck. Unfortunately, he doesn’t die and he ends up shooting her. But when he sets up for an epic finale for his viewers, it does not go according to his plan. She might die but she’s not going alone.
This was directed by Justin Harding and Rob Brunner and it was unexpected and good! There’s a mix of deadly games and supernatural horror mix that I only see once in a while. It is disturbing and frankly terrifying, for many reasons. The FX and cinematography is very good!