Glasgow Film Festival 2015: Monsters: Dark Continent

Film Review by Josh Slater-Williams | 01 May 2015
Film title: Monsters: Dark Continent
Director: Tom Green
Starring: Johnny Harris, Sam Keeley, Joe Dempsie, Nicholas Pinnock, Parker Sawyers, Kyle Soller
Release date: 1 May
Certificate: 15

In the vein of the genre switch-up between Alien and Aliens, Monsters sequel Dark Continent is an action-orientated take on the setup of the more modest original, with road trip leanings swapped for a bigger scope, explosions and fire-power.

Ten years on from the original’s events, the ‘Infected Zones’ have now spread worldwide. Our protagonists are a barely discernible, boring bunch of soldiers fighting a growing insurgency in an unspecified part of the Middle East. Dark Continent marks the feature debut of TV director Tom Green (Misfits, Blackout). He is not to be mistaken with the notorious late 90s/early 2000s shock auteur of the same name. Had that Tom Green been behind this film, there might have been an ounce of interest to these proceedings.

The draggy Dark Continent has occasionally gripping shots concerning the now more varied creature designs, aided by the considerably increased budget, but this is otherwise just every generic Middle East war movie of the last decade, with occasional monster asides and unearned stabs at PTSD pathos. [Josh Slater-Williams]


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