In “Mon Mon Mon Monsters,” a group of classmates doing community service discover two flesh-eating creatures hiding in an old building. One of the creatures is able to escape, but they capture the other one, torturing her while trying to learn what she really is. It soon becomes clear that the first creature’s escape has dire consequences, as she hunts them down and stops at nothing to free her sister.
A homeless man navigates through a seemingly endless labyrinthine corridor ascending many flights of stairs resembling an Escher painting. He finds a half-lit cigarette and before he’s able to enjoy it, two ghoulish creatures ambush him and go to town on his guts. The two razor-toothed monsters covered in grime smile contently, both oddly resembling children. The gory opening is a taste of the splatter-fest that’s about to ensue. “Mon Mon Mon Monsters” is the latest Shudder Original directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Giddens Ko.
Lin Shu-Wei is an exceptional student maintaining straight-A’s which leaves him ostracized and the target of bullies. To make things worse, Shu-Wei is framed by the bullies for stealing money from his class. Their Buddhist practicing teacher is suspicious and all are subsequently punished with the task of feeding elderly citizens diagnosed with dementia residing in the massive apartment block that opened the story. Unfortunately, the teens don’t take their duties seriously and they kind of torment the poor old folks by withholding food and taking lurid selfies. Although at first being reluctant, Shu-Wei participates and becomes part of the gang.
One elderly neighbor is a veteran of the National Revolutionary Army’s Broadsword Unit. The boys find a locked suitcase under his bed and believe it be filled with money or treasure. Unable to open the case, later that night, they return with some amateur welding equipment. This sequence is well-made with the veteran shrouded in darkness while they rifle through his apartment. After grabbing the case the two sibling ghouls are alerted by a cell phone’s ringtone and swiftly pursue the fleeing kids. Not long after, the younger ghoul is incapacitated by a hit-and-run, then the boys grab her and tie her up in the school’s abandoned basement. Although she’s a hideous flesh-eating creature, the bullies go overboard torturing her with sunlight, religious scripture, and remove her teeth with pliers. One of the boys gives the teeth to his girlfriend which she morbidly fashions into a bracelet. These actions cause Shu-Wei to sympathize with the captive as he knows abuse first-hand.
“Mon Mon Mon Monsters” features some impressive effects and camerawork but the story falls a bit short. It would’ve benefited from trimming down the length, especially the redundancy of the ghoul’s imprisonment. There are some genuinely hilarious moments and my favorite character was the war veteran wielding his broadsword. I also really enjoyed a scene featuring a busload of students being slaughtered, spraying windows with bright blood paralleled with a POV watermelon smoothie being made in a cafe for another character. Director Giddens Ko has been around for years but this is the first film I’ve seen by him. I think he should continue this midnight movie genre and in related news, I’m now a Shudder subscriber.
Available on Blu-ray & DVD February 4th
