Book of Monsters

This British horror comedy had a budget of less than 100k and though I entirely support independent movies I always believe in not over-shooting. What I mean by that is don't make a movie above your means, if you have a micro-budget then maybe avoid monsters, aliens, giant spaceships and explosive action. Considering the subject matter here for that reason I had my concerns, I didn't need to apparently.

It tells the story of a girl celebrating her 18th birthday by having a house party. Before they know it they're under siege from an array of monsters, will they survive the night?

I liked this, we don't see "Monsters" as much as we used to so it was a nice refreshing change seeing people under assault from them instead of the usual generic slashers or zombies.

With a neat little competent unknown cast (Though too old to be playing teenagers), impressive effects for the budget and a fair bit of originality I was very impressed by what they accomplished here.

Sure it's hardly groundbreaking and the budget limitations do show in places but they made the best of what they have and that right there demonstrates the talent both in front of and behind the camera.

I'd actually like to see a sequel to this, it's an underground movie that deserves considerably more attention than its likely to get. More of these and less Hollywood trite please.

The Good:

Looks great for the budget

The Bad:

REALLY poor casting for teenagers!

Stock sound effects

It follows a horror formula of the 80's slasher movies. There is the shy heroine with the mysterious past, the BBF who is overprotective, and the school bully who is just there to be mean for the sake of meanness in a High School with the world's oldest teenagers. I caught myself giggling at the cheesy but reasonably good special effects and best of all there was no CGI that I could tell of. This is one of those movies that you can't take too seriously because it's obvious that it was using a low budget. Would I watch it again? Probably not, but it was a good watch and it killed a bit of nostalgia I felt of the 80's.

Rubber monsters, hot girls and fun scenes where they chainsaw up a spider creature that reminded me of the Alien Queen from Aliens. Not a bad way to spend an evening. I'd watch a sequel if it had a bigger budget.

Book of Monsters is the type of film we are seeing a lot more of on the indie horror scene these days. Take what people loved about those classic 80s horror movies and put them in a blender with a dash of British humor and you end up with this film. There are many faults to find with this movie - the ropey FX, cliche characters and budget which shows on screen more often than not. But I'm giving this film a 7 because despite these things, boy this movie is a hoot and even made me laugh out loud more than once. With killer garden gnomes made out of rubber and a cast of attractive "teens" who either die horribly or use chainsaws to fight the monsters, this movie is entertaining. The three main girls are like-able and I actually cared about what happened to them and its a plus that they are easy on the eyes too. An easy way to scratch your horror itch and not feel like you've wasted two hours.

Really sub-par acting with wooden delivery throughout most of the film.

A woman bites a chunk out of a guy's neck and then starts clawing a pentagram into his chest and he doesn't even complain!

Actors in their mid-thirties pretending to be 18, for goodness sakes!

The effects are fun and gory, I enjoy a good amount of splatter and entrails, and they are the only thing that persuaded me to give this schlock three stars.