DVD Corner

Monsterland DVD Review

“Monsterland” is a better than average horror anthology film.

Amidst a monster outbreak, a bat wielding survivor decides to take refuge in a movie theater for a movie marathon. The movie then kicks into horror anthology mode by showing us the short horror films the man is watching in the theater. The stories involve a killer underwater creature, a man with a parasite, a kid who messes with chemicals, old hag syndrome, giant monsters, a vampire, a stay at home dad, and killer jellyfish. There’s also a deranged partial puppet segment that is beyond description.

I knew nothing about “Monsterland” going into the film so imagine my surprise when I learned it was a horror anthology film (which is a personal favorite subgenre of mine). As with many horror anthology films, however, the individual stories in “Monsterland” are uneven. There are a few fun stories to be sure like the climactic tongue-in-cheek killer jellyfish tale and the bizarre slapsticky chemicals one, but there are also a few stories that don’t work (the stay at home dad and puppet segments come to mind) and stories with poor or abrupt resolutions (old hag and parasite stories are an example of this). As for the wrap around story involving the survivor, I actually wished that was the entire movie! I would totally love to see a story involving a guy navigating a chaotic world in which monsters have taken over. There’s so much potential there.

Regardless of the content of stories, the entire cast and crew involved in this film deserves a lot of credit. Considering the film is a low budget feature with a no-name cast, the film (in its various styles) looks astonishingly well made. Even the CGI is better than some of the stuff you’d see on TV or in SyFy channel movies. Indie horror filmmakers should be taking notes from this production.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 1.78:1. How does it look? I have seen a lot of indie horror film with terrible cinematography and lousy transfers, but “Monsterland” is a surprisingly professional looking film with an overall sharp transfer.

Audio Track: Dolby Digital Stereo. How does it sound? Satisfactory.

The only extras are trailers for other RLJ Entertainment titles.

May 23, 2016 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Monsterland DVD Review