Director / co-writer Brandon Duncan sets his unsettling 1980s horror thriller, Something of a Monster, in the Catskills. Amelia (Ashley Bacon) is suffering from a phantom pregnancy and is exiled by her horrible mother-in-law, Ruby (Marilise Tronto), who sees her as an embarrassment to the family.
Ruby is a malicious nightmare who shows no sympathy for Amelia’s suffering, concerned only about appearances. Amelia’s husband Josh (Greg Brostrom) is useless, seemingly powerless in the face of his mother’s fury, and goes along with her demand to send Amelia away. She arrives at a small inn owned by her cousins, Robin (Ameerah Briggs) and Wendy (Joy Sudduth), where she is welcomed with some suspicion, but warmly nonetheless. Robin and Wendy are the only ones who show kindness to her. Unable to shake off her delusion, Amelia continues to believe she is pregnant, even when she goes to a local doctor for a second opinion, and his test confirms the negative result.
Her first night, she investigates a sound she thinks is a bear, but turns out to be a mysterious woman in the woods (played by co-writer Hyten Davidson) who attacks her. Amelia tells Robin, and later overhears Robin and Wendy talking about her being disconnected from reality.
When she tries to report the attack to the police, Amelia is accused of breaking into the doctor’s office and stealing obstetrical instruments. It is unclear if she’s suffering from hallucinations or whether her experiences are real. The mystery of the woman in the woods is the key. When we see Wendy shouting into the mountains to someone named Genevieve, we know there’s more going on than Amelia has been told.
“… Amelia is suffering from a phantom pregnancy and is exiled by her horrible mother-in law…”
The film moves along smartly, but there are problems with the plot, which diverges from logic at several key inflection points. The glaring hole, of course, is that Amelia could have purchased an at-home pregnancy test early on and known for sure if she was pregnant. The tests have been around since 1978, and the doctor she visits uses one to show her she’s not pregnant. Another strain on suspension of disbelief is that a phantom pregnancy does not come with the pronounced baby bump that Amelia shows.
As a protagonist, Amelia is not sympathetic enough, being so abrasive and combative that by the time the finale rolls up, we don’t care as much about her as we should. Another weakness is the uneven quality of performances. The four lead women are played superbly by Bacon, Briggs, Sudduth, and Davidson, but the cartoon character supporting cast is as static as the furniture. That said, the film still entertains and engages on the strength of the lead actors.
Remarkably, Something of a Monster was made for $50k, filming for two winter weeks in the Catskills. There’s real passion here from a small, dedicated team of artists. Cinematically, the film is masterful despite the budget. Low light and strained camera angles are used to build tension.
Duncan wrote about his intentions for this film in his submission notes: “This film is, at its heart, about loss and being lost, and how we take what we need from our past in order to find a new way forward. “ Something of a Monster starts as a garden-variety psychological thriller but morphs into a thoughtful meditation on the hazards of clinging to a disproven belief when it has become an unhealthy liability.
"…psychological thriller that morphs into a thoughtful meditation "
