Michael Matthews
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Joel and Boy are reminiscent of the equivalent “iconic duo” (as Joel dubs them) from “I Am Legend,” and even the dog’s name seems a winking reference to 1975’s “A Boy and His Dog,” a far nastier, grimier tale of a human-canine pair traversing a mutant-infested wasteland on a much less wholesome quest for female companionship.
Love and Monsters is a post-apocalyptic tale about a boy and his dog, but that’s where the comparison to Harlan Ellison’s A Boy and His Dog ends.
In Love and Monsters , a broad (very broad) updating of L Q. Jones's deep-cut cult movie of Harlan's Ellison "A Boy and His Dog," a lovable schlub named Joel (Dylan O'Brien) is ensconced in a bunker with a handful of other survivors thanks to a plague of monsters that has obliterated 95% of the human population.
And when Joel encounters a working MAV1S (a helper robot that feels like a subplot that got curtailed in the final pass) and it plays Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” sure enough, just a few scenes later, echoing Rob Reiner’s touchstone film of the same name, Joel emerges from a river covered in leeches — though these are of the fist-sized poisonously psychedelic kind.
In another sequence, Joel finds himself beset by leech-like creatures that he pulls off himself in what has to be an homage to Stand by Me (1986).
But Joel’s quest is no less anecdotal than that sounds, and keeps serving up bland variations on scenes from other movies—everything from Tremors (“sandgobblers” racing just beneath the ground) to Stand By Me (Joel emerges from a pond covered in giant leeches, though they’re proportionally way smaller than everything else).
Still, it has its moments, a heroic dog, and an homage to Ridley Scott's "Alien."
Love and Monsters is reminiscent of the 2013 zom-rom-com Warm Bodies in its confident mixing of, well, love and monsters, and the proceedings are enhanced by imaginative effects and some late-inning surprises.
There are many pieces of pop culture that seem to clearly influence the design and approach of “Love and Monsters,” whether it’s the bunker-bound survivors, chipper robots and irradiated, overgrown creatures of the “Fallout” series; the rom-com-meets-monster-movie premise of “Warm Bodies”; or perhaps the most direct influence, “Zombieland.”
This decision shapes an imaginative voice behind Love and Monsters’ presentation, displaying a film that isn’t eager to play it safe inside its genre construction (similar to Warm Bodies, this film conveys its dark realities while juxtaposing that with a dry sense of humor).
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Directed by Chris Sanders
influenced Love and Monsters (2020)
Plot Themes
If one were to draw comparisons between Love and Monsters and other films, it would be easiest to say the film is a mix of the family-friendly How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and science-fiction adventure Monsters (2010) with a dash of Monster Trucks (2016) silliness.
If you're a fan of the How To Train Your Dragon series, but you’re in the mood for something with a little more mature sensibility, this adventure is one you should definitely go on.
If one were to draw comparisons between Love and Monsters and other films, it would be easiest to say the film is a mix of the family-friendly How to Train Your Dragon (2010) and science-fiction adventure Monsters (2010) with a dash of Monster Trucks (2016) silliness.
Starring: Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner, “Teen Wolf”), Jessica Henwick (“Iron Fist,” “Game of Thrones”), Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galaxy), Ariana Greenblatt (The One And Only Ivan, Avengers: Infinity War).
The Maze Runner and Teen Wolf star plays Joel Dawson, a twentysomething informing us via opening voiceover that most of the world’s population has been wiped out by the Monsterpocalypse.
O'Brien, who first broke out in Teen Wolf and then The Maze Runner films, is quite good at portraying Joel, a self-deprecating everyguy who's known more for making his colony minestrone than for fighting the monsters aboveground.
Joel (Dylan O'Brien, of Teen Wolf and the hazily remembered Maze Runner movies) still loves his girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick), even though he hasn't seen her in seven years.
He’s been an obvious leading man since his days on Teen Wolf and has seemed to have numerous big screen misfires, this one chalked up to 2020, but has always solidly displayed his acting chops.
International powers came together to go all Armageddon and launch missiles at an asteroid; Earth was saved but chemical compounds rained down upon the earth, mutating reptiles and bugs into humongous aggressors.
"Nearly" because, just as in "Armageddon" or "Deep Impact," the plucky humans are able to put aside their differences and blow the threat out of the sky.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by George A. Romero
influenced Love and Monsters (2020)
Themes
The apocalypse has been presented in countless different ways in the movie world over the years, from the zombies of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead to the new ice age of The Day After Tomorrow .
Joel and Boy are reminiscent of the equivalent “iconic duo” (as Joel dubs them) from “I Am Legend,” and even the dog’s name seems a winking reference to 1975’s “A Boy and His Dog,” a far nastier, grimier tale of a human-canine pair traversing a mutant-infested wasteland on a much less wholesome quest for female companionship.
That puts him in line with Jesse Eisenberg in “Zombieland,” for example, making this as much of a coming-of-age film as it is a romance, with the movie focused on Joel confronting his own insecurities and failings when things turn to life and death.
O’Brien has to deliver a whole lot of comedic voice over, just like Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland.
It leans closer to "Zombieland" than dystopian young adult features like the "Hunger Games" or the "Maze Runner" films where O'Brien got his start, but it's not sharp, funny or sexy enough to command the attention of a post-juvenile audience.
"Nearly" because, just as in "Armageddon" or "Deep Impact," the plucky humans are able to put aside their differences and blow the threat out of the sky.
Even “Jaws” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” get a wink of approval here as Dylan O’Brien stars as a nebbish 20-year-old survivor of an asteroid attack that led to the mutant critters roaming the earth.
Love Story and The Notebook are better examples of love stories that work because you're invested in the characters' lives and the leads actually have chemistry.
From 2017’s The Babysitter to this year’s Spontaneous , he’s found his niche as a writer capable of blending fun, creativity, and recognizable themes into genre success.
Duffield is having quite the year, with Underwater and sleeper hit Spontaneous added to slasher hit The Babysitter , Duffield seems to be well on the way to becoming a staple in the fringe world of horror.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for an agreeably silly bit of seasonal entertainment aimed squarely at viewers who are perhaps too old for "Hocus Pocus" and too young for "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," "Love and Monsters" should adequately fit the bill.
Love and Monsters is very much armed with that same comedy-horror spirit of Zombieland , infused with the kid-friendly monster mash delights of 2015’s Goosebumps movie.
That’s a bold direction to take for a film that’s selling the unthreatening appeal of O’Brien, star of the Maze Runner franchise; properly executed, it might have tweaked “in the midst of death, we are in love” much like, say, My Best Friend’s Wedding subverted the conventional rom-com.
Those who feared that filmmaker Ben Wheatley would bring his fondness for heavy-handed grotesqueries--the kind on display in such films as "Sightseers," "Free Fire" and his unrelentingly lousy adaptation of J.G. Ballard's "High Rise"--to his version of Daphne Du Maurier�s 1938 novel "Rebecca" can rest easy.
There’s the nightmarish It Comes At Night (2017), the lonely The Night Eats the World (2018), the frigid Snowpiercer (2013), the violent Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), or the poisoned Earth IO: Last on Earth (2019), and these are just a few of the more modern takes.