Horror Film Review

The Monster Project (2017):  Where the hell are Sam and Dean Winchester when you need them?  In this interesting if not utterly terrifying movie, two partners who fake supernatural encounters for their YouTube channel decide to go legit and create a documentary about real monsters.  Why?  Fortune and glory, of course.  After all, they are in Hollywood.  The casting call goes out, applications are received, and the three most promising are chosen.  One is a Native American cop who claims to be a skinwalker (think werewolf), another is a tattoo artist who claims to be a vampire, and the last is a quiet and totally creepy Asian girl who claims to be possessed by a demon.  An abandoned Victorian house in the boondocks is rented, which is strange because all they're doing is a series of interviews.  Also strange is choosing the night of a lunar eclipse for the shoot.  Atmosphere and ambiance, the partner in charge reassures them ("them" being the production crew:  his video-faking cohort, his ex-girlfriend, and their recovering addict friend).

This may come as a galloping shock to you, but these three monsters are real.  After the initial interviews, the earth travels between the moon and the sun and then all hell breaks loose.  The cop morphs into a hairy beast that you'd swear hasn't eaten in months.  The vampire lady suddenly becomes terribly thirsty, and the hell-spawn living inside the slight Japanese girl decides it wants to come out and play.  Much screaming, running, hiding, and crying soon follows.  The terror and tension are palpable and incessant, which is super groovy.  There is, however, a major plot twist that will literally cause you to blurt, "The fuck...?" 

I'm gonna spoil it now, so you've been warned.

The director, the partner in charge, the guy who convinced everyone to join him is in actuality, a member of a Satan-worshiping cult.  It's their house.  They needed the three monsters and the ex-junkie's blood for a ritual to be conducted on the night of a full lunar eclipse.  A ritual that will allow Lucifer to escape from hell and destroy the world of man with his godless evil.  And it works.  No happy ending here, folks.  Except for the Satan-loving nutjobs, everyone dies.  Even the monsters.  Yay!

The Monster Project really is a lot of fun, despite the slightly depressing denouncement.  It's mostly in the found-footage style and the acting is first rate.  You will jump, you will be freaked out, and if you avoided the spoiler above, you will be blown away by the twist.  Still...would have been awesome to have Sam and Dean bust in toward the end and kick a little monster butt.  Just sayin'.

Rating:  4 out of 5