Ocean City Monster Building

Ocean City Monster Building is a low-budget sci-fi horror film that tells the story of a massive sea monster attacking an apartment building in the fictional coastal town of Ocean City, USA. We follow our protagonist one of the building's occupants and his struggle to survive the attack, rescue his estranged daughter and possibly find a way to defeat the monster before it destroys the entire city. Inspired by the classic Japanese Kaiju films of the 50s and 60s, Ocean City Monster Building rely on practical effects including special makeup, creature suits, animatronic puppets and miniature models instead of CGI creating a nostalgic yet engaging film.

While I'm in support of amateur filmmakers doing everything they can to tell their stories and make their movies. This movie Ocean City completely fails to deliver a coherent and engaging film while making you suffer through it's utterly amateur filmmaking. The direction feels aimless and lacks any clear vision, resulting in a messy final product. The shaky handheld camera work is unremarkable and fails to capture any sense of atmosphere, leaving the viewer feeling disconnected from the story. The lighting is also poor and feels inconsistent throughout the film.

The main characters the detective and the girl are both underdeveloped and lacks any depth, making it difficult for anyone to care about their struggles. The acting is void of any meaningful emotions and hindered by the poorly constructed script which is so unnatural and robotic that I'm seriously wondering if ChatGPT wrote it. And the pacing of the film is all over the place, at times sluggish and slow, other times confusing and overwhelming, making it difficult to maintain attention. The lack of suspense throughout this mystery thriller is also disappointing, failing to deliver on any satisfying conclusion. I can't believe I paid $2.99 to watch this hot garbage.

This film has a style and personality to which it remains faithful throughout; an achievement in itself already. It experiments both in its style and in its storytelling, resulting in a quite interesting movie, although sometimes questionable. The plot of the film is a murder investigation, although, really, it is more about the detective Aida. I like this transgression from the typical genre narrative and taking the liberty to be more free in the narrative development. However, I feel that this doesn't work to perfection in this case. At the beginning, for instance, I wanted the mystery narrative to develop, but I felt that time was unnecessarily spent in other conflicts, like with Megan's mother. Later into the film I realised that the film wouldn't focus too much on the mystery. However, although I appreciate this concept, I think the mystery could have been explored and developed more while still having the character developments. One thing I felt decreased the quality of the film immensely was the performances. For example, Megan's mother's scandalous screams at the police; this attitude is completely unnatural and the acting feels very fake. I felt that some reactions were just unrealistic: like when Sally learns her father died with a minor in the car and she starts sobbing. I think the film would have been highly improved if it was more subtle in its delivery. Moreover, on top of the sometimes unsubtle performances, I think that the dialogue at times was completely out of tune. I mean when the characters have mini philosophical speeches and say things like "we are all orphans" or "there is no magic in the adult trenches of existence." No one speaks like that! And I think this is the other weak point of the film: a lack of creativity in delivering these philosophical arguments, because the characters just say them, and I think that takes off their potential value. When Megan's mother speaks of cicadas, for instance, that parallelism could be done in a more creative and effective way, maybe by using the diegetic sound of a documentary about cicadas on TV and connecting it children through cuts to family pictures / baby pictures of Megan; I don't know, something like that. Using the mise-en-scene to create connections between ideas and express these philosophical thoughts in more subtle ways. I liked the part in the end, when we listen to the utopian TV show in the midst of the fight between Sally and her mother: I wanted more stuff like that. Overall, I liked the film, I think it has some valuable characteristics. I really liked the exploration of Aida and I think the wig was a powerful prop. The film's exploration of the two female immigrant characters in the USA was interesting; I think it could have focused more on that aspect while still exploring more the crime, giving more actual answers to it (but still remaining an unresolved mystery) and being more creative in delivering its philosophical parallelisms.

I gathered from the end credits that the writer-director was influenced by the Dogme 95 group from Denmark (hand-held camera, no incidental music, no make-up on the actors etc etc....all in the service of naked, unadorned 'realism'). I didn't really feel it fully. I wanted to connect with the story but just couldn't.

I don't know if it's a police drama, a murder mystery, a critique of the U. S. and its treatment of immigrants, or a philosophical statement on life as we know it. The film needs to have a more focused intent for the script. I felt distracted from murder mystery/detective story by the U. S. policy/political critique and the philosophizing dialogue. The script needs tightened up quite a bit. The handheld digital lends well to the period feeling and realistic look added to the tone of the film but it seemed that some of the "art" shots were forced and didn't fit into the flow of the film." The performances were very good which carried me through this indulgent film.

The way they made it reminded me a bit like that German movie Christiane F. I didn't like that movie too much either.

The good: stellar performances by a diverse cast. No matter how bad the dialogues are, they just won't give up and I kind of enjoy watching it. In some moments I would even say the acting successfully saved the film from disaster.

The bad: a script filled with tropes and no originality, camera shots failed to provide even a complete frame of the characters, cheap production value, little effort was made to make it looks like a period piece, sound is a big issue with muffled unintelligible dialogue and noticeable background noises. The editing is choppy and not very smooth.

The ugly: I know the coloring is a choice but it's a horrendous choice, one of the ugliest film I have ever seen. The dialogues are so pretentious and downright nonsensical I had to mute it at times in order to stomach through the entire film.

Ocean City Monster Building requires significant rework and improvements in all aspects of its filmmaking. The story is underdeveloped, lacking depth and complexity that could make it more engaging for the audience. The technical aspects of the film, such as camera movement, framing, blocking and dialogue, are badly executed, hindering the audience's ability to fully immerse themselves in the story. The shoddy camera work and off-frame shots can be disorienting, detracting from the film's overall quality. Similarly, the writing is often predictable, lacking nuance and subtlety further diminishing the film's already poor quality. The sound in the film is inconsistent, with noticeable background noises at times and muffled dialogue that is difficult to understand, this takes away from the viewing experience and makes it challenging to fully engage. The locations used in the film are underutilized and the sparse use of props added to the lackluster production value. The performances by the actors are the only saving grace, some of the monologue performances alone is worth the ticket of admission. Go see it for the brilliant performances by a diverse ensemble cast.