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Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for 'Your Monster'.Heartbreak is tough, especially in the context of medical crises and career betrayals. What makes heartbreak more palatable? Embracing your inner monster, rage and all. In Caroline Lindy's Your Monster, an up-and-coming actress's big break and relationship end when she undergoes treatment for cancer. It's too much for a narcissistic director boyfriend to handle, so he leaves her at her most vulnerable. She's a mess until the monster in her closet shows up to teach her to embrace her angry side in a charming and unique horror-tinged rom-com. But what's it all about?
What Is 'Your Monster' About?
Laura (Melissa Barrera) is a mess. The talented young actress is eyeing her big break with director Jacob (Edmund Donovan), who has written the central part in his brand-new Broadway musical for her. At least he did, but when Laura accidentally harshed his mellow by getting diagnosed with cancer, the cowardly cad breaks up with her during treatment. Laura understandably locks into a spiral of depression, crying, and eating her feelings, when her depressive caterwauling prompts a visit from a Monster (Tommy Dewey), a sarcastic humanoid beast who lives in her home. As the pair move from antagonistic roommates to frenemies to romantic interests, he reminds her to find her inner voice while she makes him a little more human. She finds the boldness to try out for the role that was written for her, and instead, the part goes to famed actress Jackie (Meghann Fahy), who didn't actually audition, with Laura awkwardly stuck as the understudy at Jacob's request.
The Monster and Laura Have a Long History
Image via Vertical It's a dark and stormy night when Laura's pity party is crashed by Monster. It's Laura's childhood home, but Monster's lived there the entire time behind her closet... and he wants her out. Laura's in such a sad state, however, that Monster takes pity on her and allows her two weeks to get things together enough to move out. The pair bond as they spend time together over Chinese takeout and classic films, and Monster starts to encourage Laura to pursue her goals and advocate for herself. Two weeks arrives, and Monster wants her to stay. When Laura discovers Monster's lair after standing up their date night, she discovers a cavalcade of old stuffed animals and other items. Monster reveals that this encounter isn't the first the pair have had. In fact, a younger Laura was spooked by a visit from a younger Monster, but it didn't go so well and Laura pushed him out then. He stayed gone until the events of the film.
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Jacob Isn't the Only One To Betray Laura
Image via Vertical While the film begins with Jacob's betrayal, that isn't the only one Laura suffers in the film's runtime. Throughout the film, friend Mazie (Kayla Foster) assures her that she's Laura's "ride or die," but she leaves Laura's side for auditions or, really, any convenience whatsoever. A fellow actor, Mazie's support also becomes curiously distant, a little odd as the film progresses. It doesn't help things when Mazie plays down the notion of auditioning for Jacob's production, then she's there for the first cast rehearsal. Curious. Laura also sees Jacob canoodling with someone during a play rehearsal, which she assumes is Jackie.
Laura blows up at Jacob after a particularly tyrannical rehearsal, but Mazie seems to be on Jacob's side. When Laura criticizes Mazie for being perpetually absent, the latter insults Laura for having no one, including a boyfriend — a particularly low blow. She later has a serious talk with Jacob that becomes sex, and then she comes home to the realization that she blew off a special occasion with Monster. Laura comes to discover that her "friend" Mazie wasn't much of a friend at all, but she'd been seeing Laura's ex, Jacob, behind Laura's back, despite his personal callousness and career betrayal. It upsets Laura, and in a rant, Mazie explains that she and Jacob had been spending time together, and they wanted to tell her, but then she got sick; the betrayal started before Laura's cancer diagnosis. Mazie begs for forgiveness. It's as denied as any request for forgiveness ever was.
The Monster's Reality Is Ambiguous
Image via Vertical There's a big question lingering throughout Your Monster: is Monster real? First, there's the simple plausibility question that a monster could live in a back room that shouldn't exist. There are hypothetical supernatural shenanigans that could explain that, however, as weird and convenient as the explanation might be. Second, Monster does exhibit his own preferences (he and Laura conflict frequently), but he's perfect for her, as a monster with secret musical talent and thespian interests, and as a source of constant reinforcement. Each time she doubts or discounts herself, her talent, or her emotions, he steps in to aggressively reinforce her. Even when he discovers she blew off their date night and slept with Jacob, his anger criticizes the notion that Jacob doesn't love her — it, too, reinforces her. It sure seems like he's pivoted around her. Third, no one really independently verifies his existence, including at the costume party where the pair publicly dance. It's plausible that everyone is minding their business, but it doesn't give any credence to the prospect that he's real.
Two key moments suggest Monster isn't: when Laura sees Jacob fooling around with someone at the party, she freezes before Monster angrily goes forward, triggers a trap door to hurt Jacob, and passes back over a glazed Laura. She stops pausing once he passes, subtly suggesting that it's a part of her identity that takes the fore when her anger is needed. Additionally, when the pair argue following the revelation that Laura slept with Jacob, Monster yells "look at yourself!," at which she turns towards Monster and yells "I am looking at myself!" While the smart money is on the monster simply being a metaphor for her suppressed inner anger at being mistreated, it's technically left ambiguous by the finale, though Monster is likely in her head (as we'll see by the film's end).
How Does 'Your Monster' End?
Image via Vertical Much of Your Monster sees Laura assume Jackie has been sleeping with Jacob. To be fair, Jackie got the part without auditioning and had been somewhat flirtatious with Jacob. When Jackie finds out from another cast member that Jacob and Laura were together (and that the part was literally written for Laura), it completely throws Jackie off her game. Later, Jackie meets Laura for a walk and talk, where she gets an opportunity to clear up Laura's suspicions. First, she wasn't the one hooking up with Jacob. Second, she didn't know that Laura was sick, or that they were together, and she just found out that Laura got fired. Jackie is mad about Jacob's actions and arranges for Laura to clandestinely take over the role for the film's premiere, grinning at her performance.
Laura performs. She's brilliant. Everyone claps, but at intermission, Jacob is furious about her intrusion into the play. She seems... checked out, and as Jacob angrily passes, lights flicker. He emerges to scream at Laura, and she confronts him about his rendezvous with Mazie. He berates her, and she cautions him to watch what he says to her, threatening to "rip his. F*cking. Throat out!!" She proceeds with the play, and the lights turn on. She's covered in blood. During the intermission, before she sings her big song for the audience, we see Monster appearing behind Jacob. He turns around and reacts to Monster, and seems confused, looking Monster up and down. Monster attacks Jacob, and then reconciles with Laura; it's sweet and violent. Cuting to an awesome performance from Laura, we see Jacob's lying dead onstage — and the audience comes to realize it's not a bit. Jacob's throat is ripped out, and Laura is blood-covered and thrilled.
'Monster' is likely in her head. After Jacob's death by Monster, she isn't covered in blood, though she is in real life. It makes sense that it was a vision, and she did the throat-ripping, and there's actually precedence for her blacking out in a fugue state: she tells Monster after her audition that she blacked out and didn't remember her audition until it was over. It's likely that she ripped Jacob's throat out, though it's an ambiguous enough ending that it's open to interpretation.
Your Monster
After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming Monster living in her closet. A romantic-comedy-horror film about falling in love with your inner rage.
Release Date January 18, 2024
Director Caroline Lindy
Runtime 98 Minutes
Your Monster is in theaters.
English (US) ·