The Green Monster: It Came from the River

Picture a once-pristine river gone green — fluorescent, glow-in-the-dark green. That's what happened in 2005 when a ravenous algae bloom roared through 100 miles of the St. Johns, Florida's largest river and one of America's grand waterways. The bloom, fueled by too much wastewater sludge and lawn fertilizer, was Mother Nature's warning. But was it a cry for help, or something worse — a death knell? Green Monster's horror movie motif — including a whimsical parody of a 1950's sci-fi movie trailer serving as an opening sequence — scores splendidly. So does the spooky music and startling stingers, which sound whenever a close-up of the gunky green goop appears on screen. But what's really scary is the comment from marine scientist Quinton White, a Ph.D. who studied the St. Johns for decades: "What this evolves into," he says, "is the river being dead." And a surrounding community that's moribund. Green Monster shows how a hot toxic mess of a river can wreck a local economy — turning away tourists, emptying hotels, bankrupting restaurants, even causing property values to crash. Imagine: A green doc about a green river ultimately sucking the green out of your wallet. Now that's scary.