While it won’t win any awards for originality, Monster Summer is a reminder of the type of kids’ movie that no longer graces our cinema screens, with its streaming debut symptomatic of a sad new world where kids are expected to watch stuff at home rather than in an auditorium with their mates, a bag of sweets and a large soft drink.
Long before streaming platforms, kids and teens relied on matinee cinema and VHS rentals for their movie entertainment. In the early ’90s, I would spend my Saturday afternoons at the local multiplex with friends, where I could catch a movie, grab a bag of sweets, and guzzle a large Coke for just £5.
Saturday afternoon screenings were dominated by movies that would now silently slip onto streaming platforms with little fanfare, including The Mighty Ducks, The Rocketeer, and Cool Runnings. David Henrie’s Monster Summer is a delightful throwback to those matinee movies that used to attract teens and kids to cinemas on lazy weekend afternoons: a nostalgic, low-budget, spooky mystery adventure with a lot of heart and just enough chills to keep kids munching on their popcorn. It is, therefore, rather fitting that Monster Summer is set in mid-90s Martha’s Vineyard, long before the advent of smartphones and internet search engines.
Noah (the brilliant Mason Thames) is an aspiring reporter, desperate to get a first article in the local paper despite the editor’s unwillingness to take anything off his hands. Noah’s dad was a reporter who lost his life searching for a story a few years ago, leaving his mum (Nora Zehetner) to run their B&B alone and Noah to pursue his journalistic passions without guidance. Noah knows that while Martha’s Vineyard may appear to be the image of perfection, a safe place where nothing remotely dangerous ever happens, there must be a story worth telling, and it’s not long before that story comes knocking.
Just as the strange and slightly aloof Miss Halverson (Lorraine Bracco) arrives at his mum’s B&B, his best mate Ben (Noah Cottrell) mysteriously falls under a strange spell after swimming in the sea. Physically, Ben is there, but his youthful energy, conversation, and spark have gone, replaced by heavy eyes, still mannerisms, and a lack of interest in anything or anyone. But, as Noah soon discovers, Ben isn’t the only kid this has happened to; in fact, there are many across the state – recruiting his friends to help solve the mystery, there appears to be only one answer: a witch is at work in Martha’s Vineyard, and they are feeding off the souls of young kids.
Of course, nobody believes Noah, and soon, even his friends leave him, but one person thinks Noah might just be onto something: his reclusive neighbour Gene (Mel Gibson), whom every kid in town fears. As Noah gets to know Gene, it turns out he is a retired detective who has been trying to solve the riddle of countless kids missing for years, including his own son. But can Noah and Gene solve the strange case of the catatonic kids before it’s too late?
Discussions about Mel Gibson’s cancellation aside, Monster Summer is the kind of role he could play in his sleep, but he makes the most of it and lends it some weight in this small, low-budget indie flick alongside the brilliant Lorraine Bracco. But it is Mason Thames‘ performance that ensures Monster Summer rises above the otherwise pretty standard kids-in-jeopardy screenplay. Like a young Ethan Hawke, Thames keeps you glued to the screen throughout, and his scenes alongside Gibson are engaging and thoroughly entertaining.
While it won’t win any awards for originality, it is a reminder of the type of kids’ movie that no longer graces our cinema screens, with its streaming debut symptomatic of a sad new world where kids are expected to watch stuff at home rather than in an auditorium with their mates, a bag of sweets and a large soft drink.
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