 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for a shutter original film. It is a 2018 Initial release called Monstrum and it is a South Korean film now I have been doing a lot of these screeners that I get from shutter So thank you very much shutter specifically Sean Redlitz for hooking me up with these This film is actually when I'm dropping this review. The film is actually coming out Thursday May 14th So I'm putting it out some days early For that reason there will be no spoilers for this, but it'll give you a good idea of if do you want to watch this? Do you not want to watch this? I will say up front. I would recommend watching this I do a lot of these screeners So I never really know what I'm gonna get So there are times where I get films like the marshes and Jessica forever and those are really bad But then you get things like this Monstrum which are quite good and I recommend everyone check this one out there's a lot of interest and a lot of fun and Yeah, I'll talk about it a little bit more, but like I said, no spoilers So this film is directed by Jung Ho who who did the film's countdown the advocate and Countdown and a movie called the advocate a missing body not familiar with these at all They don't have a ton of this person doesn't have a ton of credits But based off the film I just saw this person should have a good bright future in film The directing was really well done the cinematography looked great A lot of the camera movements were very slick very cool really cool camera angles things looked awesome The acting was really good The the use of light and dark in this was really really good the costuming was really good The set design was really good the practical effects were pretty good the CG there were there were some there's a key thing that they use CG for in this and the CG actually looks good Which is huge because I'm you know if you've been watching enough of my reviews, you know I don't like CG typically so when it's done. It's got to look good and In here it actually looks good and that's important because like I said, it's a key thing that's done in CG So the fact that it looked good was critical for this film So this film was written by who? along with jung ook beyond and Hey, oh Dom They don't really have any other credits This is based on historical events and looks to be set in feudal times It shows the issues with that system and reminds me that basically allowing society to backslide into a feudal system Which can happen? You can see it in countries happening When people become complacent you can backslide into basically a feudal system where there's one person with power Who tells you how things are gonna go and this film perfectly? Explains well illustrates why that's a terrible thing because what's going on in this film is? at its core an issue of How leadership leads or doesn't really lead and it's just all about perception They just want to tell you this is how I'm gonna control you I'm gonna tell you what to do and then I'm not gonna tell you how I'm gonna try to control you basically through fear and When there's an actual problem Question. Oh, I don't think there's really an actual problem here We're not gonna get to the root of this you're just making things up Don't look over here focus on the things. I tell you to focus on so it's an issue of not having actual leadership It's an issue of having someone who just wants power Just wants the perception to be that everything's fine and you're not gonna deal with it the other thing about this film right now is it kind of Echoes or Echoes with people at the moment because there's a pandemic element to this which obviously we're Dealing with something like that right now. Well, I guess it's not really a pandemic in this It's an epidemic because it's in one region We don't know outside of the world that's created in this film if it's actually pandemic, but could be but anyway It there's something pandemic like in this film So you kind of feel for that and then there's this kind of issue of leadership saying You know different things different aspects of leadership saying different things People don't know what to believe really and then there's an issue of some people believe this some people believe this That's playing out right now. So it's you know, it kind of echoes with what's going on right now But that that said let's move on It's dark and violent right out of the gate though It really hooks you in pretty much immediately. There's action. There's there's really dark stuff going on It's super violent. It sets a very serious tone but the weird thing for me is it then jumps to a Slower setting like it slows down a little bit, which that's not a problem that that's totally totally fine But it starts to add some comedic aspects and that feels like it clashes with how it started the film Because when it starts the film the way it does it sets his tone of okay dark and serious and you know Here here we go and then it just steps back real quick and It's fine that it was a little bit comedic But I felt like it tried to add a little too much comedy early on now They back off a little bit on that as they go forward they still have comedic moments and Then from then on for the most part the comedic moments actually work well They're kind of peppered in there at a good pace and they're actually Relatively comedic and actually land the jokes basically so I did like it I just felt like early on they kind of misstepped a little bit, but they write it that pretty quick. So not a big problem Like I said before the costuming is very good in this I mean you feel it like it's supposed to be a feudal times You feel it mainly because of the costuming it looks amazing and like I said the the sets look really good, too Like they created this world Definitely created this world. So you really feel like they hit what they were going for The back story on characters that are introduced into this early on are actually very compelling They kind of do it in like a flashback way and sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't but it really works here It definitely develops well and makes you really care about those characters So much so that when you get to the end of the film like you really want to know what's gonna happen with these characters They've become rich characters that you understand their motivations you understand where they came from you understand What they're trying to do and you kind of feel for them So you want to know what's gonna happen with them in the end and yeah, it's a great payoff. So this is the big thing about Creating believable characters developing them well giving them good back story Which a lot of movies don't do a lot of movies will just jump you straight into it and be like Here's some people just connect with them because they're they're humans as well That doesn't work, but Monstrum the script writing is really good And they do a great job fleshing out characters very rich characters in this and I like that a lot great script writing There's a role reversal in this between a man and a woman that works really really well throughout the film and it has you know it it plays into the story a few times and it's just kind of like fun and entertaining to watch and also there was Early on I saw a glimpse of oh, there's like a love interest situation here and I was like I hope they don't play on that too hard just because When you go too hard on that especially in a horror film I start to roll my eyes and I start to kind of check out a little bit because I feel like it's it's over done It's very contrived, but they didn't do that They kind of like introduced it loosely and they're just like this is kind of there And then it was it was still like kind of there But they didn't go after it too hard and it it didn't make me roll my eyes So I was actually totally fine with it So by the end I was like, okay, that wasn't that wasn't a distraction or anything For a certain reason and you know what I'm talking about when you see the film This gives me a little bit of a vibe of the film Brotherhood of the Wolf which by the way People need to be talking about that film a lot more because it is an underrated flick Actually, I did a video on like underrated films that I own and I didn't put that film in there because I do own it It's back there somewhere That should have been in the list, but Brotherhood of the Wolf. So there's a little aspect of it They do a good job capturing the debate and confusion and trying to figure out how to address a large social issue They could have just made it like this person says this this person says this but there was a lot of inner a Lot of talk going on throughout it that kind of Accurately portrays the back and forth of you know, well, do we do this? This is this side of it This is this side of it. What do we do? You know, they have the arguments. They try and figure out what to do So I like I like that aspect of it made it feel more real If you like some good fight scenes this film certainly has you covered There's plenty of actual action in it. In fact, it starts with some action to a degree But I wasn't prepared for how much action there would be in this film there's a lot of action in this film and For that reason, I think it really keeps the pace of the film really good Like it keeps moving at no point did I feel like this film was dragging now that said I actually did feel like maybe there Were some of the stuff that could have easily been cut out because it's like an hour and 45 minute runtime and that's with credits So maybe it need to be cut back it well not need to be it could have been cut back a little bit and for me personally like I Would have liked it to be cut back just a little but It's not necessary. We're it's not a hundred percent necessary and there'll be plenty of people watch this and are just like Our 45 minutes no problem for me And in fact if they had more in there, I'd be good with that and I can see that perspective for sure But yeah, the pacing was great in this. I did not feel bored, which is nice It has good twists in it. This goes back to that really good script writing. It's a compelling story It's very very interesting the way they set this up and there are twists That's another wonderful thing whenever I can watch a film and not just walk through it being like Oh, I know everything that's gonna happen or this feels very familiar It's it's a good time and it was a very good time for that reason because things happen that I didn't see coming And I assume when you watch it, you won't see it coming as well. And that's a good thing There's something they set up in the beginning of this film that actually feels very very banal But they end up bringing it back in an interesting way at the end It ends up being very very important and it's it's cool because the way it was incorporated initially you're just kind of like Yeah, that's a thing like that happened and then when it comes back at the end It makes you think back and you're like, ah, yes, that was they laid the track for that. That's smart once again good writing It probably show I already talked about that about having it cut back a little bit There's a lot of heart and emotion to this film I felt it like like I said a lot of that has to do actually with the development of the characters the backstory and the motivations all that Type of stuff very good writing and it's good writing that will make people feel emotionally involved at times and Understand that this film really feels like it has a lot of heart and it definitely does it was executed quite well I already covered all the technical components of this film There's an aspect to this is very timely Speaking about you know The how do you deal with these issues? Like I said, it shows kind of like the debate and the confusion involved But it also kind of gives a warning of you know, it takes things seriously. It's not all about perspective and you know something that's been done in film quite a bit is looking at the the people who want to rule with an iron fist and Obviously saying that's terrible. That's bad Let's not believe those people because they're going to lead you to destruction and that's very much, you know Happening in this one and that doesn't really ruin anything because there's so much to this film You'll see what I mean, and I'm I'm honestly like the most important thing about this film I haven't even said a bit about so You'll be surprised Well, maybe you won't be surprised. I don't know. I don't know how much it was in the trailer So I didn't see it so you know Yeah, so that's that's basically all I have to say about this like I said I was very happy with this like I like I said before I watch a lot of these screeners and I always go in just thinking I don't know what I'm gonna get am I gonna get something terrible like the marshes Or am I gonna get something really good like in this instance? Monstrum and Monstrum was a really good time. I highly recommend it to everyone So out of five stars with half stars in play. What am I gonna give it? It's not a perfect film. It's not the best film. I've ever seen or anything, but you know what? I'm gonna give it four stars. This is a really good effort. I really hope that the filmmaker The director and the writers and the actors everyone involved with this film I hope they continue to make film because I would like to see more of this If you're one of those people out there who's like, I don't know about subtitle films You got to get over that there's so many amazing subtitle films out there and this is a really good one And it's a shutter original. So that's wonderful But um, yeah, awesome go check this film out if you haven't already put some comments down here When you see that film, let me know your thoughts on it Did you like it as much as you not like it because I'm always down to hear differing opinions on stuff because sometimes people point out things I didn't think about and I'll be like Oh, you know, you're totally right about that. Let's put down some comments Do me a quick favor if you like anything I do any reviews or anything like that unboxings anything hit that subscribe That's your way to repay me because I'm not getting paid for this Literally takes you a second and it can mean a lot for my channel trying to grow things If you already subscribed just give me a thumbs up to keep the encouragement going and let me know that you're still watching But thank you very much for spending your time watching this and until next time keep it brutal