Jameson Cult Film Club Monsters Screening

London’s Royal College of Surgeons is not a typical place for a film screening, but then Jameson’s Cult Film Club specialises in showing films in less than usual locales. Previously they’ve shown Taxi Driver in a car park and a selection of horror films in a chapel. On Thursday night they showed Gareth Edwards’ critically acclaimed Monsters to a packed out audience within the halls of the prestigious college. With Jameson cocktails to hand and surgical masks at the ready, a few hundred hardy souls braved the cold London night to witness Edwards’ future cult classic.

Our evening began in the college’s museum, wherein shelf upon shelf of preserved organs, creatures and human beings remain in hundreds of jars. Some specimens were fascinating, some tragic, but most were incredibly disturbing. Take, for example, the section of a child’s face, or the enormous facial tumour, or the series of snake embryos, all preserved perfectly for well over a hundred years and probably for many years to come. The seven foot skeleton of Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant presides over the room like some freakish sentinel. In another corner, the vastly enlarged skull of a man with a severe brain tumour rests, looking for all the world like the cranium of an extra-terrestrial. It is some ways a relief that we were under strict instruction not to take photographs.

Into this veritable house of horrors enters Gareth Edwards and his editor on Monsters, Colin Goudie, for what we are firmly told is an informal chat. Edwards was extremely forthcoming about his struggle to get into directing. Being a special effects whizz meant he was able to make the right contacts with producers who were willing to take gamble on him helming projects only for executives further up the chain to pull the rug from under his feet. After one particularly harsh knockback, a producer apologetically put him in touch with a star agent, who was able to get Edwards in touch with Vertigo, one of the few companies seemingly willing to get directors out there shooting films rather than just talking about it. So off Edwards went to South America, armed with his camera and minimal cast and crew. By the time Vertigo saw any footage, Edwards was three weeks into the shoot, which would have too late to pull plug if Vertigo hadn’t liked what they saw. Luckily for everyone, Edwards pulled it off – on a budget of less than $500,000 Monstershas so far grossed $3.4 million.

After our meet and greet, we head downstairs for the screening. Attendants in hazmat suits and gas masks patrol around and eerie lighting, actors and chunks of scenery set the mood for the film. Edwards and Goudie arrive on stage to introduce the film and answer a few questions. Apparently, influences for the film included Jaws, Lost in Translation and Babel. Despite his previous candidness, Edwards is nothing if not tight-lipped regarding his involvement with the new Godzillafilm, about which he would tell us nothing, for fear that rival studios would poach ideas (see Deep Impact and Armageddon, Dante’s Peak and Volcano and more recently, Drive Angry and Faster).

Finally, the screening begins. For those who don’t know, Monsters takes place in a reality where enormous elephant-squid type aliens have crashed in Mexico. Their behaviour causes massive damage to the lives of the people who remain in the area but an extremely shaky coexistence has been established, mostly enforced by military might and a gargantuan wall separating Mexico and the US. In this fragile world, we find Calder and Sam (Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able), a photographer and the daughter of his wealthy employer. Calder must escort Sam back to America, through the so-called ‘infected zone’ to safety.

Having seen the film already, a second viewing does improve the experience. However, there are still issues with the film that niggle. Whilst it is acceptable that the film’s main conceit is that the monsters themselves are rarely on screen or the focus of our attention, this means that the relationship between Calder and Sam is the focal point in the film. Personally, I found the relationship too understated to carry the whole film, especially having seen a similar thing done in the excellent but little-seen Paraiso Travel (wherein a couple travel through Latin America to reach the US, undergoing incredible hardships though fall apart, rather than fall in love). Still, Monstersis an incredible effort for a feature debut and it is impossible to knock it technically – Edwards’ SFX wizardry puts films on budgets of tens of millions to shame, such is the mastery with which he has conjured the monsters from his home computer’s software. As I mentioned, on a second viewing, you begin to notice and appreciate the smaller details in the film and the more subtle character developments.

Overall then, Jameson’s Cult Film Club hosted another fantastic night out – we await the next one with great excitement. See http://jamesoncultfilmclub.com/ for more details.