love and monsters movie review

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Dylan O’Brien’s charisma goes the distance in the fleeting, but fun enough apocalypse adventure “Love and Monsters,” which has the actor navigating an obstacle course of convenient twists, unabashedly cute characters, and mega-sized creepy crawlies. He’s done well in a school of acting that has alums like Adam Brody and pre-Lars von Trier Shia LaBeouf —the art of being a little neurotic, with endearing self-deprecation taking the place of any stable cool—and this is an excellent display of O’Brien’s infectious imagination and comic energy. Plus, director Michael Matthews places him in a vivid apocalypse in which we’re the ones in danger of being squished, as towering centipedes, snails, and slugs and more have wiped out 95% of the human population.

It’s a funny start then, how O’Brien begins “Love and Monsters” as a type of sidekick to a whole team of sexually active, bad-ass apocalyptic fighters, and he’s the chef. Vengeful, mutated animals might have been created from missiles that tried to shoot down a massive asteroid seven years ago, but some things in life are constant—some folk shack up with others quickly than others, and some people are much better at facing danger head-on. And then there’s O’Brien’s lonely Joel, whose main skill is that he makes a good minestrone soup.

After he makes contact with an old love named Aimee ( Jessica Henwick ), who lives in a different colony 80 miles away, Joel decides to tackle the unknown danger of the outside world, and leave behind this makeshift family who seem to be in their own action movie. Everyone warns against it, knowing that he freezes when he's been face-to-slimy-face with the monsters that have previously tried to break into the colony, but fear can be so tiring. Credit to “Love and Monsters,” it makes an intriguing hero flaw out of simply being too scared. Their survival of advice to Joel is a stern, “Don’t fight. Just run and hide.”

By sheer determination to be with someone he first said “I love you” to right before the apocalypse, O’Brien’s Joel navigates his way through a new world, passing along cliff-sides that have been turned into honeycomb, and through suburbs that have been swallowed whole by the greenery of nature. While walking through a backyard, he's attacked by a massive frog in a swimming pool, and is saved from its tongue by a quick-witted dog named Boy. It’s absolutely not the last time the movie will use convenient timing to save our hero, but it’s charming because of the dog, and the tight action sequence that unites them. The “banter” that O’Brien shares with the dog after is a delicate expression of Joel’s loneliness, and amicability. Boy is a good dog, and a good listener.

Later on, Joel meets two more charming souls, who add character to the saga and not much else. But they share a good comedic chemistry, with Joel still as the clumsy underdog, who learns from the tough-as-nails kid Minnow ( Ariana Greenblatt ) about how to fire a crossbow, and Clyde ( Michael Rooker ) the secrets of surviving day by day. During their travels, Michaels spikes the goofiness with a few tense moments, not so much from grand surprise, but a festering dread. Especially as Joel’s flashbacks to seven years ago depict a gruesome end to everyone's loved ones, “Love and Monsters” has a vital sense of danger, mixed with its interest in using O’Brien for some frantic slapstick.

The script by Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson (with story credit to Duffield) staples together its adventure using voiceover and a whole batch of characters' good timing, but O’Brien’s Joel is a strong guide: he's optimistic, excitable, and always likable. O’Brien helps give the movie a heart, and creates the movie’s need for connection in ways beyond finding his dream girl—he shares an unexpectedly sweet scene with a talking robot, which gives a sense of gravity that helps the later moments when he’s sprinting from an appropriately freaky centipede. “Love and Monsters” has a winning sincerity that helps it move along, even if you become more aware of just how narrow it is.

Underneath everything, “Love and Monsters” has the feeling of a director auditioning for something of a “ Transformers ” movie, especially in its third act. The final showdown feels like a tacked-on calling card, but it’s another smoothly executed set-piece of people scrambling during a monster attack, with some hand-to-hand combat thrown in the mix. It’s also a good moment for the film’s sporadic use of practical effects, when all of the crags, slime, and moss on a monster makes them seem even larger in close-up, something you just don’t get from the other CGI creatures that chase people around in this story.

But even more than for director Matthews, this is O’Brien’s showcase. He makes you believe that Joel is sprinting for his life from some fantastic beasts, and that throwing himself into an apocalypse to combat loneliness is noble enough. “Love and Monsters” openly tells you it’s not overthinking a single component, but with the spectacle of O’Brien’s athletic work, that’s not exactly the end of the world.

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Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Love and Monsters (2020)

Rated PG-13 for action/violence, language and some suggestive material.

118 minutes

Dylan O'Brien as Joel Dawson

Jessica Henwick as Aimee

Dan Ewing as Cap

Michael Rooker as Clyde

Ariana Greenblatt as Minnow

Michael Matthews

Writer (story by)

Brian Duffield
Matthew Robinson

Cinematographer

Lachlan Milne
Nancy Richardson
Debbie Berman
Marco Beltrami
Marcus Trumpp

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Love and Monsters Reviews

Love and Monsters offers an adventure full of excitement and emotion, striking a beautiful balance of humor and heart.

Full Review | Dec 14, 2023

Love and Monsters features plenty of comedy and heart, courtesy of O'Brien's voice over and a script from Robinson and Duffield. I'm a big fan of Dog, the way the film handles Joel's relationship with Aimee, and the Oscar-nominated realism of the CGI.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 10, 2023

Love and Monsters is a warm-hearted, properly funny and very likeable film.

Full Review | Sep 11, 2023

It's always weird to say a story about the end of times is heartwarming, but Michael Matthews' film is exactly that without ever coming off as syrupy or disingenuous.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 20, 2023

Love and Monsters is the perfect diversion for these difficult times. The movie, besides providing a light and tender story about love, also offers an inspiring arc about overcoming trauma and becoming one’s own hero...

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 20, 2023

Love and Monsters is a gutsy genre hybrid that blends scares with sentimentality, anchored by an “adorkably” appealing Dylan O’Brien.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Beyond just being an enjoyable time, this sci-fi/adventure packs enough heart to be just as substantive as a movie like this can hope to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 11, 2022

While it never threatens to be something Earth-shattering, Love and Monsters entertains thanks to a lack of cynicism and a lead you actually want to see succeed.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2022

Love and Monsters checks a few of my I'm-a-sucker-for movie boxes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 12, 2022

A post-apocalyptic romance that covers a lot of emotional ground, Love and Monsters is an entertaining and well-paced adventure...

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

Through Dylan O'Brien's undeniable charm, interesting monster design work, and a metric ton of plucky spirit, it engages in an unrelenting fight for your affection. And as much as you might want to write it off, you just can't: it's got too much heart.

Full Review | Aug 28, 2021

With a mix of comedy, action, and heartfelt moments, [Love And Monsters] ... rises above mere popcorn entertainment - - and it doesn't hurt that Michael Rooker is in it!

Full Review | Jul 2, 2021

Nothing short of a delight, even if it doesn't offer anything particularly groundbreaking.

Full Review | Original Score: 4 / 5 | Jun 26, 2021

What really sets Love and Monsters apart is its humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/5 | Jun 10, 2021

Even if Love and Monsters is a little too similar to better films, [Dylan] O'Brien is a charming lead.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 26, 2021

It succeeds thanks to its attempts to rescue the traditional cinematic escapism that is so sought after in these times. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2021

Netflix hosts a must-have blockbuster full of mind-blowing creatures and a spirit of classic youth adventure. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 17, 2021

Just its title, Love and Monsters leaves no doubt as to what it's going to offer. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2021

It doesn't break the mould, but Love and Monsters is a fun, fast-moving genre flick with its gooey heart in the right place.

Love and Monsters can't resist slathering on some cheese right at the end, but on this occasion, the slight self-indulgence definitely feels earned.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2021

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‘Love and Monsters’ Review: Coming-of-Age After the Apocalypse

The new sci-fi adventure from Michael Matthews lacks the self-seriousness of typical dystopian flicks but doesn’t completely lack depth.

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By Lovia Gyarkye

In “Love and Monsters,” an imaginative post-apocalyptic coming-of-age film from the South African director Michael Matthews (“Five Fingers for Marseilles”), an asteroid doesn’t destroy civilization, but humanity’s attempt to stop it does.

After humans launch rockets at an asteroid heading for Earth, chemicals from the exploding missiles shower the planet and turn insects into giant, terrifying mutants that kill 95 percent of the population and force survivors to live in underground bunkers. “Love and Monsters” picks up seven years after this harrowing event and follows Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien), who embarks on a perilous 85-mile journey to find his high school sweetheart, Aimee (Jessica Henwick), after they reconnect over the radio.

His fool’s mission drives the first half of the film, which introduces an amusing, if somewhat shallow, band of characters including Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt), two no-nonsense adventurers plagued by loss.

“Love and Monsters” lacks the self-seriousness of typical dystopian flicks but, despite its surprisingly perfunctory title and relatively thin plot, it doesn’t completely lack depth. In addition to the tried and true lessons Joel learns along the way (the value of love, courage and confidence), the film remarks on the importance of documentation and archival work. For the last seven years and throughout his journey, Joel assiduously maintains a notebook of the monsters he encounters, creating detailed drawings and noting their behaviors. Not only does this habit save his life on more than one occasion, but it also plays into the film’s metacommentary on paying attention — even if it’s the end of the world.

Love and Monsters Rated PG-13. Violent and suggestive. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon , Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.

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‘Love and Monsters’ Review: Fun Times During the End Times

A fun if forgettable family-friendly adventure comedy set in a "monsterpocalypse." Who said the end of the world had to be a downer?

By Jessica Kiang

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It’s the end of the world as Joel (Dylan O’Brien) knows it and, despite living in an underground bunker for seven years to evade the gigantic mutant reptiles, insects and amphibians that now roam the earth’s surface, he feels surprisingly fine. Michael Matthews ‘ cheerfully PG-13 adventure comedy quickly dispenses with any notional topicality threatened by its premise (it would be a reach to relate the comet-strike/radiation quandary faced by humanity in its opening moments to our current deeply uncool and uncinematic global disaster), but that’s all for the best. It leaves “ Love and Monsters ” free to get on with its splattery creature effects and silly but satisfying hero’s journey entirely unencumbered by importance.

Abetted by a disarming, charming O’Brien, liberated from the dourness of the last dystopia he battled in the “Maze Runner” movies, Matthews delivers a daffily lightweight throwback to the teen action-adventures of the ’80s and ’90s. Back then, it was more or less routine to summon entire apocalypses into being solely to provide some awkward white American kid with an obstacle course on which to Prove Himself. So when the previously un-kickass Joel splutters triumphantly “I feel like Tom Cruise!” having tossed a grenade into the maw of some slavering beastie, it’s a mark of the film’s benevolent, infectiously simplistic worldview that we can take it at face value. In “Love and Monsters,” love is good, monsters are bad and feeling like Tom Cruise is “awesome.”

In a self-deprecating voiceover, Joel brings us up to speed, with the aid of some pencil-drawn animations (he is more talented with coloring pencil than with crossbow). In an effort to deflect an approaching comet, missiles were sent up, which worked fine except the irradiated fragments then dropped down to earth and instantly mutated all cold-blooded creatures — cockroaches, worms, crabs, etc. — into massive, human-hungry monsters. Seventeen-year-old Joel was out canoodling with his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) when disaster struck. They got separated, he witnessed his parents’ deaths, and since then he has lived underground as the sole single guy in a colony of loved-up (exclusively heterosexual) couples. Due to his tendency to freeze in the face of danger, Joel’s been left in charge of milking the cow, fixing the radio and cooking the minestrone, while the more vigorous colony members go on perilous overground forays for food and supplies. Charitably, we can infer that this overly protective environment has somewhat arrested his development; the weirdest thing about “Love and Monsters” might just be that Joel is supposedly the ripe old age of 24 while most of it is happening.

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Recently, Joel managed to locate Aimee’s colony on the radio, and one day (it’s not very well articulated why now exactly), deaf to the entreaties of his colony “family,” he embarks on the kamikaze 85-mile journey to her coastal enclave. Soon he teams up with an excellent dog named Boy, then he encounters grizzled old-timer Clyde (Michael Rooker) and his precocious 8-year-old sidekick Minnow (a delightful Ariana Greenblatt). They teach him some sterling lessons in survival, as he’s assailed by a Harkonnen-like frog the size of a compact car, a mutant crustacean that would keep Maryland in crabcakes for a year, nasty underground worm-critters Minnow dubs “Sand Gobblers” and a slow-moving but insatiable final boss monster known as a “Chumbler.”

Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson’s screenplay was apparently written on spec, but the familiar story feels like it was based on pre-existing material. That’s largely due to Matthews’ unapologetic, affectionate appropriation of other films from the post-apocalyptic and coming-of-age genres, the sum total of which represent a kind of smorgasbord of what “Love and Monsters” is going for. Joel and Boy are reminiscent of the equivalent “iconic duo” (as Joel dubs them) from “I Am Legend,” and even the dog’s name seems a winking reference to 1975’s “A Boy and His Dog,” a far nastier, grimier tale of a human-canine pair traversing a mutant-infested wasteland on a much less wholesome quest for female companionship. When Joel teams up with Clyde and Minnow, the film briefly becomes “Zombieland.” The subterranean monsters inevitably recall “Tremors.” And when Joel encounters a working MAV1S (a helper robot that feels like a subplot that got curtailed in the final pass) and it plays Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” sure enough, just a few scenes later, echoing Rob Reiner’s touchstone film of the same name, Joel emerges from a river covered in leeches — though these are of the fist-sized poisonously psychedelic kind.

The creature design team obviously had a good time. It’s a relief to encounter such varied and pleasingly lo-fi monsters in an age when everything else seems to be a riff on the “Cloverfield” thingamajig. And as slimy, toothy and gross as the creatures often are, Lachlan Milne’s sprightly photography and Marco Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp’s scrupulously generic “let’s go on an adventure!” score never allow for things to get too dark. It’s all quite forgettable, but in the moment so goodnatured that even the hopeful little “Hi! We could do a sequel!” hooks carefully planted throughout can’t spoil the fun. In fact, a sequel seems quite an appealing prospect, if we can just, as a civilization, make it our noble, quixotic mission to survive that long.

Reviewed online, Ronda, Spain, Oct. 12, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 108 MIN.

Production: Director: Michael Matthews. Screenplay: Brian Duffield, Matthew Robinson. Camera: Lachlan Milne. Editor: Debbie Berman, Nancy Richardson. Music: Marco Beltrami, Marcus Trumpp.
Crew: (Canada-U.S.) A Paramount Pictures release of a Paramount Players, MTV Films, 21 Laps Entertainment, Entertainment One production. Producers: Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen. Executive producer: John H. Starke.
With: Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Ariana Greenblatt, Michael Rooker.

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‘love and monsters’: film review.

Dylan O'Brian risks his life for love in Michael Matthews' 'Love and Monsters.'

By John DeFore

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A post-apocalyptic YA adventure for those who think the best way to teach babies how to swim is to toss ’em into the pool, Michael Matthews’ Love and Monsters takes a young man with zero survival skills and sends him, by himself, on a week-long quest through lands populated by giant, deadly beasts. After spending seven years as the only single dude in a survival bunker full of couples, maybe the prospect of a thrilling, quick death wasn’t so horrible. Playing like a family-friendly, less funny take on the template set by Zombieland , Michael Matthews’ follow-up to the well liked Five Fingers for Marseilles boasts some fine action sequences and inspired beasties; adding first-love nostalgia to the mix ensures it will press enough buttons for enough viewers to be a living-room Halloween success.

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Love and monsters review: this adventure comedy is a delightful distraction.

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Hollywood is no stranger to all manner of post-apocalyptic dystopian movies, but Paramount's new film Love and Monsters takes the genre in a much more light-hearted direction, following a lovesick young man as he ventures through a world of monsters. Directed by Michael Matthews ( Five Fingers for Marseilles ) from a script by Brian Duffield ( The Babysitter ) and Matthew Robinson ( Dora and the Lost City of Gold , Monster Trucks ) from a story by Duffield, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where much of humanity has died out and Earth is overrun with giant creatures. Love and Monsters may not be a wholly fresh concept, but a clever script and Dylan O'Brien's charm make for a super fun adventure comedy.

In Love and Monsters , O'Brien stars as Joel Dawson, a 24-year-old who's been living in a bunker underground with a group of fellow survivors since the 'Monsterpocalypse' seven years prior. When he reconnects with his high school girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) over radio, he impulsively decides to travel the 85 miles to her colony and reunite with his love. The problem is, Joel doesn't have much in the way of fighting skills or killer instincts. That doesn't deter him, though, and thankfully he meets up with a dog named Boy who helps keep him safe, and a pair of survivors - Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt) - who teach him how to stay alive. Although Joel must contend with the monsters on the surface of the Earth, he's also facing the insecurity of whether he made the right decision to leave his colony and find Aimee, and it remains to be seen whether he'll survive the monsters - or his love.

Related: Love and Monsters: How The World Looks Without Humans Clip

Although Love and Monsters is somewhat of a high concept sci-fi story, it works because it follows classic conventions and explores universal themes of love, rejection and discovering where you belong in the world. It doesn't go too deep into these themes, but there's enough exploration of the human experience in Love and Monsters to give it some depth, making it more substantial than just monster movie spectacle. It also helps that Love and Monsters is anchored around a classic type of story, that being a boy and his dog - though in this case, Joel and Boy are battling scary monsters. This helps to ground the movie in a compelling dynamic, while giving Joel someone to interact with when he's not around other people. In the end, Love and Monsters is a delightful mix of poignant human story and monster movie spectacle, even if it sometimes strains under the labor of balancing these elements.

Much of what makes Love and Monsters work so well is actually O'Brien's star turn. The actor was a breakout star from MTV's Teen Wolf TV show, playing the nerdy and sarcastic best friend Stiles, and O'Brien brings a little of that same charm to his Love and Monsters role as Joel. O'Brien delivers an excellent comedic performance, but also has the range to play the more serious moments, making Joel a well-rounded character. The actor can even carry off a one-sided conversation with a dog without it going too cartoonish. With few other characters in Love and Monsters , let alone very many supporting roles, the movie is O'Brien's to shoulder and he proves himself an exceptionally talented lead. He's further supported by Henwick, Rooker and Greenblatt, who all work well with O'Brien to cultivate compelling dynamics on screen. But they themselves aren't given too much to work with. Love and Monsters is O'Brien's movie to make or break, and he's charming, funny and fascinating enough to make it work.

While Duffield's script goes a long way in putting a fresh spin on the apocalyptic dystopian story in Love and Monsters , there's certain elements that feel a bit stale - or, at least, too reminiscent of other movies' gimmicks. For instance, Joel's narration (established as letters he's penning to Aimee) coupled with Clyde's lessons about staying alive feel all too similar to Zombieland's rules and Jesse Eisenberg's delivery of them. That's not to say Love and Monsters is a ripoff of Zombieland , but it goes to show that Matthews' movie is entering an incredibly crowded genre and doesn't do quite enough to set itself apart as wholly original. Perhaps its most endearing quality - beyond O'Brien's Joel and his relationship with the dog Boy - is that it delivers realistic looking monsters, using a mix of practical effects and CGI, that harkens back to monster movies of the 80s. Ultimately, Love and Monsters attempts, but doesn't quite succeed in delivering the quirky, irreverent and one-of-a-kind apocalypse comedy-adventure it clearly wants to be.

Perhaps it's for the best, then, that Love and Monsters moved from a theatrical release in early 2021 to an on-demand debut this Fall. While the monster spectacle and sprawling apocalyptic landscapes would look great on a big screen, there's something perfect in releasing a movie about leaving a bunker and venturing into a new, scary world at this moment in time. For those who don't quite feel safe enough to return to the theaters, Love and Monster offers that escapist experience, trading a pandemic for a Monsterpocalypse. As such, Love and Monsters is definitely worth checking out for those craving a new movie and want to go on a lighthearted adventure. It's not necessarily a must-see movie, but those who give Love and Monsters a chance will no doubt be won over by this delightful distraction from our own scary world.

Next: Love and Monsters Movie Trailer

Love and Monsters releases on Premium Video-On-Demand Friday, October 16. It is 108 minutes long and rated PG-13 for action/violence, language and some suggestive material.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

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Love and monsters, our rating:.

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Love and Monsters is the best apocalypse adventure since Zombieland

Welcome to the monsterpocalypse...

If you think 2020 feels apocalyptic enough already, well, you're not wrong. Watching a movie where society has collapsed and humanity has been driven underground might not sound like the escape it once was, but Love and Monsters is something different.

As the name implies, the monsters that kicked humans off the top of the food chain are only half of the equation. It's the love that makes this movie special. Whether that's the long-distance romantic love that drives the narrative, the love between unlikely friends traveling an apocalyptic wasteland together, or the love between a dude and his dog, there's no shortage of love in Love and Monsters .

And, of course, the monsters are pretty cool, too.

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Joel and Boy (the dog) hide from a "Sand Gobbler."

Love and Monsters takes place seven years after an apocalyptic event . As the protagonist, Joel (Dylan O'Brien), explains in the opening credits, everything changed when an asteroid set its sights on Earth. The world's governments successfully blew up the asteroid, but the resulting explosion covered the planet in chemicals that mutated anything cold-blooded (bugs, frogs, lizards) into gigantic human-eating monsters. Ninety percent of humanity was quickly wiped out, and the remaining survivors hide underground in colonies linked only by haphazard radio towers.

This seems to be the status quo until Joel uses his colony's radio to track down his old girlfriend, Aimee (Jessica Henwick). Despite the rest of the colony rightfully arguing that Joel won't last a day on the surface, he decides to travel the 80 miles to see Aimee. Along the way, he befriends a dog and links up with a traveling duo played by Michael Rooker ( Guardians of the Galaxy , The Walking Dead ) and 13-year-old actress Ariana Greenblatt. It's a fun adventure full of heart, quips, and the occasional monster attack that will have you holding your breath while Joel battles with a centipede as big as a limousine.

Joel and Minnow (Greenblatt) share an emotional moment.

At its heart, Love and Monsters is the story of Joel's growth as he takes on a terrifying world. It's easy to follow his transformation from wimp into post-apocalyptic hero. When I ask Rooker what he thinks the movie's message is, he points to Joel's journey.

“This young man going after what he feels is his destiny; that's what you got to do,” Rooker tells Inverse . “You don't hang around and be unhappy. You gotta find your own way and do your own thing.”

Sappy meanings aside, one of the reasons Love and Monsters works so well is because of its ensemble. Watching Joel walk through 80 miles of wilderness would have gotten old fast. But watching him do it with a lovable dog, a cooky old man wielding a samurai sword, and a scrappy young girl elevates the entire thing. If you loved Zombieland but wished it was a little less cynical, this is the movie for you. It might not have the star power of Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and Jesse Eisenberg, but it's got a very cute dog and that's almost as good (if not better).

Joel and Boy.

But before you write off Love and Monsters as some heartwarming Disney adventure, it's important to know that the monsters in this movie are truly awesome . Equal parts gross and terrifying, when Joel faces down a giant frog, encounters a snail as big as a boulder, or falls into a nest of Sand Gobblers (I'm still not sure what they're supposed to be), it really feels like a life or death situation.

These CGI creatures are also amplified by the movie's natural backdrop. Love and Monsters takes place in Northern California, but it was filmed by director Michael Matthews in Australia, which provides the monsterpocalypse vibe the film is going for.

“There's odd, crazy plants that grow there,” Rooker says. “So parts of it look kind of prehistoric.”

The Sand Gobbler.

There's so much to love in Love and Monsters . Every scene is packed full of ideas, whether it's the rules of the road that keep the group alive (example: you can eat a good meal or get a night's sleep, but not both or the monsters will smell your food) or the creative design choices evident in each mutated monster. One surprisingly touching scene later in the movie sees Joel interacting with a retro-futuristic robot called MAV1S while giant jellyfish float across the night sky.

Ultimately, Joel does make his way to Aimee, and here the movie takes yet another turn. The last stretch of Love and Monsters isn't quite as perfect as the middle, but by then you're already sold. The finale makes up for any leaps of logic with an epic set piece that will keep you from getting bored.

In a different world, Love and Monsters might have been the surprise hit of the summer, giving sweltering movie fans a chance to hide out in air-conditioned theaters for a bit of apocalyptic escapism. Instead, it's coming at a time when we need escapism even more. Thankfully, Love and Monsters is up to the task.

Love and Monsters will be available digitally on October 16.

Science Fiction

Love And Monsters Review

14 Apr 2021

Love And Monsters

A nominee in this year’s Best Visual Effects Oscar category, Love And Monsters is an unheralded treat. Michael Matthews’ enjoyable romp comes from no previous existing IP, features no A-list talent and comes with a modest price tag, but rises above the pack through smarts, invention and a neatly judged tone. Denied a cinema release by Covid (the plot has echoes of the pandemic, with a whole world frightened to go outside), it’s a crying shame, as its imagery merits the big screen and its sense of adventure deserves a full house.

The premise is laid out in voiceover and nifty illustrated sketches. To prevent giant asteroid Agatha 616 from destroying the Earth, scientists devised a series of rockets that blew the rock to smithereens. The downside is that the chemical compounds employed to launch the missiles fell back down to Earth and turned the animal kingdom into the kind of mutant monsters beloved by Ray Harryhausen (why it didn’t affect humans is never addressed). Under siege, the human race subsequently hid in underground bunkers. The disaster was particularly bad timing for our narrator Joel ( Dylan O’Brien ), who was just about to hook up with new girlfriend Aimee ( Jessica Henwick ) when the pair were separated and holed up in different colonies. Cut to seven years later when Joel, the only singleton in a loved-up bunker, is left feeling alone and useless after an Aliens -style breach, and decides he is going to make the 85-mile trek above ground to reunite with his love.

_Love And Monsters_ gets its spirit from Amblin without ever trying too hard to be too Amblin-y.

By its very nature, Love And Monsters is episodic, but it’s an engaging journey. The visuals of a world overrun by giant critters — a spider’s web covers the outside of a house, bicycles are lodged high in tree-tops — are imaginative and the monsters, including out-sized centipedes, frogs, snails and crabs, are diverse and designed with personality. En route to Aimee, Joel runs into a pair of survivors, Clyde ( Michael Rooker ) and eight-year-old Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt), who show the newbie the staying-alive ropes, a nice chemistry emerging between the trio (see Minnow’s teasing of Joel). If it takes its premise and plot cues from Zombieland __, Love And Monsters gets its spirit from Amblin without ever trying too hard to be too Amblin-y. It mixes laughs, a cute dog, PG-rated ickiness, exciting set-pieces, a genuinely warm robot and, as Joel is transfixed by a shoal of bioluminescent jellyfish floating through the air, a Spielbergian sense of wonder, perfectly juggling every colour.

As it enters its third act, it pivots into a slightly different movie that we are not really invested in, but the climactic Joel-versus-the-monsters showdown is satisfying. O’Brien makes for a likeable guide through the mayhem, playing a believable useless doofus at odds with his YA hero status. There’s some thematic guff about refusing to settle (even in a post-apocalyptic world) that never really lands, but Matthews and screenwriters Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson give the characters just enough time to breathe and register while never skimping on Humongous Bugs action. The ending leaves things open for a sequel. And for once, it would be very welcome.

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‘Love and Monsters’ Review: Dylan O’Brien Leads a Fun and Imaginative Post-Apocalyptic Romp

David ehrlich.

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Michael Matthews’ “Love and Monsters” is the rarest kind of movie these days: A fun, imaginative, genre-mashing adventure that was made with a modest amount of big studio money and destined for a theatrical release despite not being adapted from a comic book or carried by a major star. Well, maybe “destined” isn’t the right word, as a certain pandemic (you know the one) came along and compelled Paramount to scuttle a multiplex release in favor of a VOD play. And while it might be legally accurate to say that “Love and Monsters” isn’t based on pre-existing material, it couldn’t be more obvious that it was conceived by someone who saw “ Zombieland ” on TV one night and thought to themselves: “I could do it better. And with bugs.” Lucky for us, they were right — or at least right enough that it’s a blast to watch them try.

The brainchild of “Spontaneous” filmmaker Brian Duffield (who shares a script credit with Matthew Robinson), “Love and Monsters” was clearly written by people who’ve seen too many post-apocalyptic movies, for people who’ve seen too many post-apocalyptic movies. The lighthearted “this is how the world ended” voiceover that kicks things off is so lackadaisical and matter-of-fact that it feels like Duffield and Robinson were aiming it at an audience that’s been living in a post-apocalyptic movie since March.

Our narrator is a nasal beta male named Joel Dawson (“Maze Runner” star Dylan O’Brien, effectively playing against his “Riverdale”-ready looks), and he explains why he’s been living in an underground bunker for the last seven years as if he knows we all have bunker stories of our own. “I don’t think anyone was really shocked,” he shrugs when reflecting on his species’ near-extinction. “We always thought it might happen, and then it finally did.” In this case, “it” came in the form of a giant asteroid — scientists were able to blow it up with rockets before the space rock crashed into our planet, but the chemical compounds used to launch those rockets fell back to Earth and turned the entire insect population into kaiju-sized killing machines. Some other creatures were affected as well, but the film is a bit fuzzy on the fake science of it all (if only because Joel doesn’t know what’s happening on the surface either). Besides, that’s what sequels are for.

Anyway, Joel is the only single person left in the subterranean sex pit he calls home — which may or may not have something to do with the fact that he’s the village liability, and freezes whenever he gets scared — and the fact that everyone around him is boning at all times in plain sight is starting to screw with his head. But there is someone out there for Joel: Her name is Aimee, she’s played by “On the Rocks” breakout Jessica Henwick , and they were just about to have sex when their town was annihilated by some Blattodea the size of sailing yachts (talk about a cockroach block).

Joel has been pining for her ever since, and when his bunker is forced to fend off an “Aliens”-style termite breach, our boy decides that the time has come to brave the outside world and make the suicidal 85-mile trek to Aimee’s fortress on the coast. “I know you guys think of me as some adorable little hedgehog,” he tells the sweet people he’s leaving behind, but he’s been settling there for too long. “We love you, Joel!” they shout back, early evidence of a movie that’s at its winsome best when finding traces of humanity amidst a hostile fallen world.

And the world is very hostile, indeed — wonderfully so. If Joel’s hero’s journey never ventures off the beaten path, it’s punctuated by scary-silly creature encounters that keep you invested in every step. The creature effects run the gamut from the shoddy (a massive hypno-toad with alien eyes and a projectile tongue) to the skin-crawling (a hole in the ground plays host to a Raimi-esque worm attack), but all of the monsters are memorable in their own way, the benevolent ones most of all. Even the more generic-looking CGI beasts are endowed with enough purpose and personality to make Joel’s world feel like an intriguingly specific place full of unfathomable dangers, and not just an obstacle course for him to survive if he wants to have sex.

From a mutant spider web draped over an abandoned house, to a bicycle lodged high in the branches of a tree, and later a hilarious robot companion whose LED eyes radiate maternal warmth, the film is flecked with the kind of thoughtful design flourishes that make this potential franchise-starter feel like it was made with tremendous care. By the time Joel crosses paths with a no-nonsense hunter (an obligatory Michael Rooker ) and his merciless 8-year-old traveling campaign (Ariana Greenblatt) in a second act so indebted to “Zombieland” that it even starts rattling off survival tips, “Love and Monsters” has established a clear enough personality of its own to copy off someone else’s homework for a little while. It helps that Rooker and Greenblatt feel like they’re dropping in against their will from a more action-packed adventure that’s running parallel to this one, and seem as irritated by the tropes that Joel’s story forces them to become. And really, who needs a meta joke about Bill Murray when you have the year’s best movie dog and a kind-eyed boulder snail?

“Love and Monsters” isn’t much for heavy lifting — its theme of refusing to settle (even at the end of the world) is as underwritten as it is overstated, not to mention out of sync with a year in which mere survival has suddenly become aspirational even for handsome white boys from upper-middle-class families like Joel — but O’Brien does a fine job of threading the needle between “helpless” and “annoying,” Matthews’ prestige TV-ready direction strikes an enjoyable balance between comedy and danger, and the kookiness of the film’s third act compensates for its shallow emotional undertow.

It’s a shame, however understandable, that “Love and Monsters” won’t get a chance to show the world that a mid-budget movie like this can still work in theaters. But we should be happy that someone out there still recognizes that you can build an irresistible cinematic universe from scratch without breaking the bank, and squeeze it inside a 100-minute feature that leaves people wanting more instead of an eight-episode series that leaves them begging for less.

“Love and Monsters” is now available on VOD.

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‘Love and Monsters’: An Incurable Romantic’s Guide to the Apocalypse

By David Fear

It’s tough enough for Joel ( The Maze Runner ‘s Dylan O’Brien) to get some alone time with Aimee (Jessica Henwick), the young woman he’s smitten with, on a good day. Throw in an apocalypse with giant monsters roaming the land and munching on anyone who crosses their path? Forget about it. Once upon a time, there was an asteroid heading toward our planet that threatened to wipe out all of humanity. The good news is that, having learned a lot from endless viewings of Armageddon, the people of Earth quickly fired a ton of missiles at the space rock and blew it to smithereens. The bad news is that the resulting cosmic debris raining down from said explosion caused insects, crabs, fish, lizards and other cold-blooded animals to mutate into gargantuan man-eating predators. This new development admittedly makes it little hard to nuzzle in the back seat of a car when 20-foot cockroaches are attacking your vehicle.

Still, in between helping his fellow survivors defend their underground bunker and cooking for the “colony” — the kid makes a killer minestrone — Joel can’t stop thinking about the girlfriend who he last saw fleeing for her life. He eventually tracks Aimee down via radio, and discovers that she’s nestled with her own group out west. It’s 85 miles away and a seven-day trek from Joel’s location. But if fighting off toads the size of Toyotas is the new normal, he’d prefer to spend the end days with her. Never mind that he has a bad habit of freezing under pressure. This sad sack is going to facilitate an in-person reunion or literally die tryin’.

A sort of incurable romantic’s guide to the apocalypse — think “putting the love back into Cloverfield ” — this crowd-friendly creature feature plays like one-stop multiplex shopping: What if you melded an Apatovian-schlub rom-com onto a dystopic YA sci-fi adventure? O’Brien is the guy you hire when you want likable and inoffensive, which are the two qualities he brings to hapless no-man’s-land traveler. He eventually meets several companions on his journey, including a scrappy dog, a robot named Mav1s who’s down to her last few ounces of battery power and a rugged older gentlemen/prepubescent girl duo wandering the wastelands. (Just in case those early colony scenes didn’t already give you an extremely The Walking Dead -lite feel, the fact that this survivalist father figure is played by Michael Rooker, a.k.a. TWD ‘s Merle Dixon, should do the trick.) Through all of his encounters with strangers and chirpy android allies, beasts both friendly and ferocious and five-stories-high, his Joel toggles between petrified and persevering. You believe he’s the kind of human-vanilla-wafer of a hero who’d both brave dangers to see the object of his affection and be dismissed or taken for granted by almost everyone around him.

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That’s a pretty apt description of Love and Monsters overall as well. It has such a casual, kicking-back-no-big-deal approach to being a blockbuster with CGI behemoths, derring-do, late-act twists (when things seem too good to be true, they usually are) and set pieces involving crossbows, arm cannons and tridents that the thrills, spills and chills almost don’t register on the screen-spectacle Richter scale. The pitter-pattering of hearts provides as much momentum as the scurrying from stomping and chomping, though there’s little urgency to either. Filmmaker Michael Matthews (whose 2017 South African Western Five Fingers For Marseilles is a great example of how to make something familiar feel intriguingly fresh) isn’t one to rock the studio boat, though he’ll occasionally drop in a few left-field touches — a sky full of jellyfish set to “Stand By Me” sounds unwatchable on the page, and is both odd and oddly beautiful — that perk things up.

It’s a pity that, in this age of at-home viewing being both a necessity and a default, that Love and Monsters is primarily getting a push via PVOD — it’s not the kind of film that’d justify viewers paying a steep ticket price in “normal” times, yet it’s actually the exact sort of film that would play a lot better in a drive-in. Some old-fashioned, cranked-up Cormanesque wattage from a large screen and honking car horns could give this innocuous love-in-the-time-of-killer-two-ton-crustaceans romp a jolt. As it is, this is a perfectly fine postapocalyptic mash-up that really is just the sum of its parts, and nowhere near a gleeful, shriek-inducing whole. For some, that might be considered a feature. For the rest of us, it’s most definitely a ginourmous, gaping-jawed bug.

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Love and monsters, common sense media reviewers.

Charming post-apocalyptic adventure is filled with suspense.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Promotes communication, empathy, perseverance, tea

Joel is self-deprecating but courageous, selfless,

Post-apocalyptic scenario in which 95% of the plan

Early reference to how many members of Joel's colo

Occasional strong language includes "s--t," "damn,

In one sequence, a character's home-brew beer is d

Positive Messages

Promotes communication, empathy, perseverance, teamwork. It's clear how, in life-threatening situations, people work best with others, collaborating and creating community. No matter how traumatic the circumstances, people need one another and need to feel loved and cared for with found families.

Positive Role Models

Joel is self-deprecating but courageous, selfless, kind. He cares for and loves his colony family and Aimee, the dog Boy, and his new friends Clyde and Minnow. Almost all of the characters are helpful and generous, willing to help others survive under unthinkable circumstances.

Violence & Scariness

Post-apocalyptic scenario in which 95% of the planet's population has died. The killer, cold-blooded mutants are occasionally quite frightening (other times they're somewhat comedic looking); they strike quickly and injure or kill several characters. People use weapons to kill the mutants. One case of humans fighting one another. Many close calls involving humans and the movie's beloved dog.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Early reference to how many members of Joel's colony have coupled up. He talks about one couple being in their "honeymoon period," which is "intensely physical" (audiences hear moaning and see shadows behind a curtained-off room). Later Joel walks by a room and sees bare legs entwined on a bed, where it's implied another couple is being sexual with the door open. In a flashback, Joel and Aimee make out and are about to possibly do more when they're interrupted by a catastrophe. Also a couple of passionate kisses.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Occasional strong language includes "s--t," "damn," "hell," "moron."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In one sequence, a character's home-brew beer is discussed, and many people drink it. A kind of berry is poisonous, as is the bite of mutant leeches.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Love and Monsters is a post-apocalyptic adventure-comedy-thriller starring Dylan O'Brien . He plays Joel, the odd man out in a small underground colony that formed after asteroid pieces hit Earth seven years before, wiping out 95% of the population and turning cold-blooded creatures into monstrous, human-killing mutants. When Joel realizes that his former girlfriend is only 85 miles away, he decides to brave the surface, which is filled with countless supersized creepy crawlies capable of killing people. They're sometimes quite frightening, strking quickly and injuring or killing several characters. People use various weapons (guns, crossbows, grenades, etc.) against the monsters, and there are many close calls involving humans and the movie's beloved dog. Joel talks about the fact that most of his podmates have coupled up and are having loud, physical relationships; there are also a few kissing scenes. Language is occasionally strong ("s--t," "holy s--t," "damn," etc.), and some characters drink homemade beer. Amid the scares, the movie promotes communication, empathy, perseverance, and teamwork. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parents say (16)
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Based on 16 parent reviews

Moaning sex scene in beginning

What's the story.

LOVE AND MONSTERS starts off with an explanation of how, seven years earlier, pieces of a broken asteroid hit Earth and caused cold-blooded animals to mutate into larger-than-life killer creatures. After 95% of the population was killed off, the survivors hid in underground bunkers called colonies. Main character Joel ( Dylan O'Brien ) tells viewers that he's the odd-man-out loner in a colony full of romantic couples. When he realizes, thanks to the CB radio, that his former girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) is only 85 miles away (about a seven-day trek), Joel decides to head to the surface and make his way toward her with just a hand-drawn map, a crossbow, and a backpack. Along the way, he meets a dog named Boy and teams up with grizzled Clyde ( Michael Rooker ) and his precocious young companion, Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt), both of whom know a lot about surviving on the surface. Together, they make their way toward Aimee's colony while battling a variety of life-threatening beasties.

Is It Any Good?

O'Brien's earnest charisma makes this comedic post-apocalyptic adventure a surprisingly sweet and entertaining pick. Movies aren't released in a vacuum. Given the state of the world in 2020, there's a particular appeal to watching a post-apocalyptic movie, so it's a relief that this one is, despite all of the human-eating creatures, irresistibly cute and funny. Life in a bunker surrounded by a colony (or bubble) that works together under unthinkable, unprecedented, life-or-death circumstances feels especially resonant in 2020, and the underlying themes of community, love, and teamwork are important reminders of the values that are needed to overcome not just a "monsterpocalypse" but any catastrophe.

O'Brien, who first broke out in Teen Wolf and then The Maze Runner films, is quite good at portraying Joel, a self-deprecating everyguy who's known more for making his colony minestrone than for fighting the monsters aboveground. He sketches and journals and tries to keep his PTSD at bay, until one day he decides to risk everything to reach Aimee, whom his brain has turned into an idealized version of his one true love. Rooker and Greenblatt are appealing as his hardened but kind companions on the road, and a shout-out needs to be given to the canine performer who plays the expressive Boy. For an uplifting view of humanity, even at what seems like the end of the world, check out this understated adventure about a guy who survives and thrives against all odds.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Love and Monsters . Is it necessary to the story? What do you think when a movie mixes violence with comedy and even romance? How do the sci-fi themes impact the violence ?

Talk about which characters you'd consider role models . What character strengths do they demonstrate? Why are courage , curiosity , empathy , and perseverance important traits?

Discuss the genre of post-apocalyptic movies. Which ones are your favorites? Do you prefer those that occur in the near future and reference popular culture and history, or do you like the ones in the distant future with no mention of contemporary reality?

What does Joel learn on his hero's journey? Who helps him? What do you think happens next?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : January 5, 2021
Cast : Dylan O'Brien , Michael Rooker , Ariana Greenblatt
Director : Michael Matthews
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Paramount Pictures
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Character Strengths : Communication , Courage , Empathy , Perseverance
Run time : 109 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : action/violence, language and some suggestive material
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : March 21, 2024

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DVD & Streaming

Love and Monsters

Action/Adventure , Comedy , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

October 16, 2020
Dylan O'Brien as Joel Dawson; Jessica Henwick as Aimee; Michael Rooker as Clyde; Ellen Hollman as Dana; Ariana Greenblatt as Minnow; Ellen Hollman as Dana; Dan Ewing as Cap

Home Release Date

January 5, 2021
Michael Matthews

Distributor

Paramount Pictures

Movie Review

Joel was only 17 when the world as he knew it ended. He was enjoying the summer with his girlfriend—the delightful and beautiful Aimee—and simply cruising along through life without a care in the world.

But then that crazy asteroid came hurtling toward the Earth. And the world’s nations collectively blew those space rocks to dust. And the fallout settled back around the planet. And every beast, fish and insect grew into giant distorted monsters. And 95% of the human population was killed within a year. And the few remaining survivors found themselves hunkered down in subterranean colonies.

Now, seven years later, Joel isn’t handling his new life all that well. He’s kinda the only single dude in a bunker full of couples. On top of that, he really doesn’t have the right skill sets for post-apocalyptic living: He’s lousy with a crossbow, for instance. And even if he were a sharpshooter, he freezes in the face of danger.

In fact, his only real contribution to the survivor group is his ability to whip up a goulash or stew out of some canned tomatoes and a roasted side of giant flatworm. Mmm, yummy!

So that’s why, after miraculously connecting via radio with his lost love Aimee, Joel decides to hike the 85 miles to her colony’s bunker. At first, his friends think he’s joking. And then they think he’s crazy. And when he steps out the door … they’re pretty sure he’s monster-chow.

Joel, however, is determined. He knows nothing about this new environment he’s traversing. For that matter, he isn’t even sure which direction is west. But he’s going to give it a go. He’s going to make it to Aimee.

It’s only after trudging for a while, and almost being eaten by an enormous five-eyed toad, that he pauses to think: You know … I never asked her if she has a boyfriend.

Positive Elements

Joel’s convinced himself that he’s not very useful to the group of survivors in his bunker, and far from needed. But in time, he comes to realize just how much he cares for those friends, and he learns more about how much they care for him, too.

Joel meets two other people along his journey who welcome him. They save his life at one point, and they teach him about the creatures and plants around him, showing him the necessary skills needed to survive. Joel shares that collected knowledge with others via a book he creates.

Throughout Joel’s monster-infested journey, the film stresses the value of friendship and points to the strength we can gain from others in our times of need. It also encourages self-sacrifice and the importance of taking risks in pursuit of personal growth. When the apocalyptic crisis begins, for instance, we see in flashback that Joel’s parents put their lives on the line to make sure he survived. And years later, both he and Aimee make similarly sacrficial choices in an effort to aid others in need.

[ Spoiler Warning ] And even though things don’t ultimately turn out the way he hoped with Aimee, Joel tells her that he is very thankful that she inspired him to take his trip because of all that he learned along the way.

Spiritual Elements

Sexual content.

We see Joel and Aimee kiss in a flashback and then again in the present. In fact, in that flashback scene things look like they might get much more intimate before the couple is interrupted by a public emergency alarm.

While in the bunker, Joel has trouble sleeping because of the frisky couples around him. We hear one lovemaking pair behind a curtain and see the bare legs of another couple who are lying entwined on a bed.

Violent Content

Joel gets liberally thumped about during his perilous journey on the creature-plagued surface. He falls down hillsides and into pits and is dragged about or sent flying by large monsters of many types.

Our intrepid hero faces giant snails, centipedes, crabs, ants, spiders, frogs and various other odd creatures that burrow through, leap out or skitter quickly over the ground. These gruesome-looking beasties, generously appointed with rows of sharp teeth, attack Joel and other humans, but we only see three people actually consumed in such attacks. (And, bloodlessly, I should add.)

Joel drags himself out of a murky pool and realizes that he has large leeches all over his arms, neck and torso, He pulls them off, leaving behind wounds from their small sharp teeth.

A huge monster attacks and sinks a large yacht. And a quick-moving burrowing monstrosity called a Queen Sandgobbler launches itself toward a man just as he tosses a grenade, blowing the creature into a storm of goopy chunks. We see quite a lot of gushing goo and dismembered parts from various vanquished beasties.

Past creature attacks leave behind the remnants of broken vehicles and shattered buildings. And in several areas, Joel crunches over the bones of human victims. A woman uses her handmade “arm cannon” to blow up a radio tower and to launch explosive shells in a number of directions. Other people use crossbows, spears and other melee weapons.

Crude or Profane Language

Some 15 s-words and one mixing of God’s name with “d–n” are joined by multiple uses each of the words “a–,” “h—,” “b–ch” and “b–tard.” There are also a couple crude references to male genitalia and about 10 exclamations of “oh my god!”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Joel is poisoned by the venom of large leaches that bite him. He staggers about and nearly passes out before chewing the leaves of a fern that’s laced with a natural antivenom.

Upon reaching Aimee’s small colony, Joel meets a guy who makes his own beer. He’s given a glass of the booze with a plate of food (though he doesn’t drink it). Later, Aimee and others appear quite intoxicated by the stuff. Several tumble over and pass out.

Other Negative Elements

A few people lie in an attempt to steal the food and belongings of others. And one group of devious folks plots to ensure that some other people are killed by a large monster.

Love and Monsters is the latest premium feature film—following in the footsteps of Trolls World Tour , Scoob! and Mulan —to forgo a planned theatrical release and spill its guts via video-on-demand. And let me tell ya’, there are plenty of those monstery, post-apocalyptic guts here to spill.

That said, this definitely isn’t the latest rendition of some flesh-eating zombie pic. Love and Monsters embraces a much more lighthearted and less nasty vibe than that. It feels very much like a modern take on a Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creature feature mixed with comic pratfalls and boy-and-his-dog life lessons.

Thematically, the film encourages viewers to stop burying their heads. To learn from their mistakes. To rely on their friends and loved ones. And, of course, to get out there and be the best monster-killers they can be. And all of those lessons are the sort that we can take to heart in real life. ’Cause, hey, if there’s one thing our world is full of these days, it’s a lot of scary and chaotic stories that we don’t want to roar in our direction.

In fact, if this film didn’t have quite so many s-words and other crudities exploding about in the midst of its gushing creature goop, it might have been a dandy COVID-apocalypse tonic for young and old alike. But despite Love and Monsters’ feel-good vibe, it still has a few too many foul teeth and rough edges for the average family room gathering.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Love and Monsters (2020)

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Review: ‘Love and Monsters’ presents a reminder not to go outside that you may not want to hear

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

Anyone looking to escape the apocalyptic anxiety of a pandemic may want to steer clear of “Love and Monsters,” an action-comedy set seven years after a cataclysm has wiped out more than 90% of Earth’s human population. In this movie, characters spend a lot of time sheltering in distant bunkers, staying in touch via radio because it’s too dangerous to meet in person. Feel familiar?

Dylan O’Brien stars as Joel, a bumbling youngster tired of being his underground colony’s weakest resident. Joel embarks on an 80-mile journey by foot, dodging the mutated beasts that have overrun the planet, in order to find Aimee ( Jessica Henwick ), the girl he had a crush on in the Before Times. Along the way, he learns lessons about facing his fears that — unintentionally, given that “Love and Monsters” was shot last year — ring a little hollow in 2020.

Director Michael Matthews and screenwriters Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson have made something that echoes “A Quiet Place” and “Zombieland” — and especially the latter, given that Joel often narrates his adventures, listing survival tips in letters to Aimee. The hero even has his own gruff, Woody Harrelson-like mentor in a cool hat. (Michael Rooker plays the surly sage.)

But while it’s well-acted and slickly made, the movie’s derivative qualities — coupled with its inadvertent reminders of how crummy everything is outside our doors right now — make it less fun than intended. The light-hearted tone is often grating, working against the inherent drama of a world dominated by giant critters.

The story really only finds a good groove in its final third, when Joel has a major setback and discovers courage and perseverance can only carry him so far. Though it’s moderately likable throughout, only when “Love and Monsters” gets serious about the difficulties of Joel’s situation does it feel genuinely relevant.

'Love and Monsters'

Rated: PG-13 for action/violence, language and some suggestive material. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes Playing: Starts Oct. 16 in general release where theaters are open; also on premium VOD .

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Love and Monsters’ On Netflix, An Apocalyptic Adventure With A Big Heart

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Dylan O'Brien

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Dylan O’Brien is no stranger to stories of apocalypse and adventure; the star of The Maze Runner has faced off with more than a few formidable foes, and his latest role in Love and Monsters is no exception. Now streaming on Netflix (and currently a Netflix Top 10 hit ), Love and Monsters is part-post-apocalyptic adventure movie, part-love story. We’re here to let you know if it’s worth traveling to the ends of the earth with this guy, or if you’re better off in other company.

LOVE AND MONSTERS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Welcome to a post-apocalyptic world where creatures far and wide are now super-sized thanks to the fallout of taking down a massive asteroid with a series of rockets. 95% of the world’s human population has been wiped out, and most of the remaining survivors live underground in bunkers. One of those humans is Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien), a nervous artist known in his colony for his minestrone. Joel hasn’t seen his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick) since the world went to shit seven years ago, but he dreams of reuniting with her – and one day, fed up with feeling useless in his colony, he decides to make that dream come true.

Despite colony members’ objections, Joel heads out on an 85-mile trek to the beach where Aimee’s colony is. On the way, he befriends a dog named Boy, who becomes his most loyal companion. Not too long into his journey, Joel also encounters Clyde (Michael Rooker) and young, scrappy Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt) an unconventional duo who teach him what he needs to survive in this land of massive, human-craving monsters. With the help of these new friends and a few spots of his own courage, Joel begins to believe in himself and let go of the traumas that haunt him. Part-apocalypse adventure, part-romantic comedy, part-journey of self discovery, Love and Monsters is a light, (mostly) family-friendly film that has something to say.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I thought a lot about this while watching because it elicited feelings of a few familiar flicks; Love and Monsters feels like Zombieland and Hunt for the Wilderpeople meets adventure movies of the ’80s and ’90s and the big-heartedness of John Hughes.

Performance Worth Watching: The dog who plays Boy is a STAR. I think I cried more at this hound’s performance than I have at anything in the last week. (I cry a lot). On a serious note, much like Julia Butters stole every second she was on screen in Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood , young Ariana Greenblatt establishes herself as a star in the making the moment she appears in Love and Monsters . Her role is not a particularly new one – we saw Abigail Breslin do this schtick in Zombieland – but she breathes life and genuine emotion into it, eliciting laughs with zingers and breaking hearts with her tears. With any luck, we’ll be seeing her on screen for years to come.

Memorable Dialogue: There are a lot of clever lines (and a good running bit about stealing food) here, but I really enjoyed the simple effectiveness of “You’re an asshole if you get eaten” as a farewell sentiment when Joel embarks on his journey.

Sex and Skin: The film opens with a few references to all the sex-having happening around Joel in the bunker, and we see him almost have car sex with his girlfriend in a flashback, but overall, Love and Monsters is pretty family-friendly.

Our Take: I don’t remember the last time I experienced such a full range of emotions watching a movie of this nature. I smiled, I laughed, I cried, I gasped. Even when I knew where things were going, they still affected me deeply. Love and Monsters is something truly special, a delightful romp appealing for both adults and tweens and teens that might be drawn to this kind of story. In a short amount of time, the film manages to build an exciting world and establish a distinct tone with the use of clever animations and quippy voiceover from Joel. Even in its apocalyptic state, the world of this story is a dazzling one. It is a true testament to the filmmakers that they’re able to draw us in so quickly without making it feel overly expositional.

As the film’s leading man, Dylan O’Brien proves himself as a comedic and emotionally genuine force, giving off some serious vibes that evoke Adam Brody, a dash of Chris Pratt, and a sprinkle of beloved adventure stars of the ’80s and ’90s. He’s awkward without feeling try-hard or grating, and strangely charming as hell – his character may not have worked quite as well in the hands of another actor. The script is clever, tight, and well-structured, but the performances from O’Brien and the rest of the cast really take it to the next level – and so does his sparky chemistry with Henwick, even when their story doesn’t go where we might expect. Beyond the storytelling and performances, Love and Monsters won me over from a technical and aesthetic perspective with just about every scene; the monsters themselves were impressively executed and totally thrilling – perhaps the best effects work I’ve seen in a minute – and the action set pieces really worked. The dreamy, occasionally nightmarish scenery also helped sealed the deal.

Perhaps inadvertently, it is a timely film for these days of lockdown and isolation, a reminder that while we can’t live our lives the way we’re used to, we can step out of our comfort zones in other ways. Love and Monsters is really a story of tackling monsters both real and in our heads, and while there isn’t a ton below the surface, it’s still a refreshingly heartfelt and light piece of work. Even the more predictable moments are spirited and energetic, and while it’s not always laugh-out-loud funny, the film’s warmth drives home everything else. Love and Monsters is a dose of much-needed hope and open-heartedness with some excellent monsters and action sequences tossed in for good measure.

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Our Call: STREAM IT. Love and Monsters offers an adventure full of excitement and emotion, striking a beautiful balance of humor and heart.

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski .

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Post-apocalyptic romance Love And Monsters makes an untimely case for leaving the bunker

Dylan O’Brien and a robot in Love And Monsters

Give Love And Monsters credit: If nothing else, it does at least come up with a new (albeit ludicrous) twist on the killer-asteroid premise that once fueled two dumb disaster movies in the same year. In this film’s near future—no year specified, but humanoid robots that could pass the Turing test are apparently commonplace; every other aspect of life resembles our present day—humanity successfully shoots down the lethal bolide just before it strikes Earth. Unfortunately, the missiles deployed for this rescue mission rain chemicals onto the planet, creating instant Godzilla-style mutations in all cold-blooded animals. About 95% of the global population has been killed by these beasties, we’re informed, with the survivors left to eke out a Quiet Place -ish existence in isolated bunkers. Seven years have since passed, and that’s about as long as Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien) can tolerate being separated from former girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick). Aimee’s bunker is a week-long journey by foot, and nobody—much less a comparative wimp like Joel—could likely avoid being eaten for that long. But he sets out anyway, because horny is horny.

Why Is Gizmo the Only Good Gremlin?

In the 'Gremlins' films, all of the creatures turn bad except for Gizmo. The original film's novelization gives us a strange reason for why.

In 1984, the Joe Dante directed and Steven Spielberg produced Gremlins changed movie history. Not only was its violence such a concern for parents that it helped create the PG-13 rating , but it also introduced us to one of the cutest and cuddliest film protagonists you'll ever see. Long before there was Grogu, there was Gizmo , a Cocker Spaniel colored little creature who loved people and was heavily invested in their pop culture. With Howie Mandel voicing the little Mogwai, Gizmo became part of pop culture himself.

There was just one problem with Gizmo. If you got him wet, he multiplied, and the balls that popped out of him, while almost as cute as Gizmo, weren't nice like him. They were mischievous. And when they ate after midnight, they transformed into scaly, sharp toothed killers. Gizmo, however, never became like them. In fact, he fought against the gremlins. Why did Gizmo never become a bad gremlin though? There are several ways to answer that, with part of it coming down to Gremlin 's bizarre novelization, which gave Gizmo and company a completely whacky backstory.

RELATED: How Steven Spielberg’s Advice Turned ‘Gremlins’ From Straight-Up Horror Into a Holiday Classic

Gizmo Is Nothing but Curious and Kind in the 'Gremlins' Films

The first time we ever meet Gizmo in the first Gremlins film is when Rand Peltzer ( Hoyt Axton ) enters a shop in Chinatown looking for an early Christmas present for his son, Billy ( Zach Galligan ). Gizmo lives his life in a box, singing without a care in the world. Rand has to have him. When introduced to Billy, Gizmo immediately imprints on his new owner. He smiles and sings and even plays the keyboard a little. And he's completely enthralled with TV. When he accidentally gets wet and multiplies, he wants nothing to do with the five Mogwai who pop out of his back. When the mischievous new Mogwai trick Billy into giving them food after midnight, Gizmo shows no interest in eating with them. He shows none of their destructive tendencies either, such as when they tie up Billy's dog outside.

As the Mogwai transform into the ghastly gremlins, they turn on Gizmo, torturing him while he cowers in fear. These creatures may come from him, but they're not like him. He sticks with Billy, just as scared and disgusted by the gremlins as Billy is. And in the end, when Billy needs him the most, Gizmo risks his life to kill Stripe, the last gremlin standing. When Gizmo's owner, Mr. Wing ( Keye Luke ), comes to take Gizmo back at the end of the film, Gizmo speaks English, saying, "Bye, Billy."

1990's Gremlins 2: The New Batch finds Gizmo and Billy reunited when Gizmo is abducted by scientists after Mr. Wing dies. The lab they take him to just so happens to be in Clamp Tower, the same building Billy works in. Gizmo is nothing but happy to see his old friend again. Of course, Gizmo gets wet once more, and the new Mogwai again transform into gremlins. These creatures also torture Gizmo, though in both films they never try to kill him, even though they have no problem murdering humans. And just like in the original film, Gizmo, with Billy's help, fights against the evil creatures, even taking one down Rambo style. Why is Gizmo so good and innocent though? Why does he never turn into a gremlin? Why do the gremlins hate him? Why does he fight against them? Does how Mr. Wing raised him play any part in Gizmo's personality? None of these questions are answered. It's just who Gizmo is. Like how people can be good and bad, maybe so can Mogwai. There has to be more to it though, as no other Mogwai are good, but the films leave it a mystery.

The 'Gremlins' Novelization Tried To Explain Gizmo's Goodness

The Gremlins novelization aimed to answer those questions. They almost had to. In the 1980s especially, novelizations to popular movies did big business. They could be problematic though, say if your film was about little creatures who didn't speak and had no backstory. A novelization of a film is meant to expand on the limited run time of what we see on a screen. A book is where a writer could go more in depth on a character's backstory, adding scenes and dialogue. With Gremlins focusing mainly on protagonists and antagonists we know almost nothing about, the author of the Gremlins novelization, George Gipe , had to make stuff up, and he went off in the craziest of directions.

The first crazy thing Gipe did was make the gremlins from outer space . The first page of the novel explains a race of aliens, called Mogturmen, who created the Mogwai:

"The galactic powers sent Mogwai to every inhabitable planet in the universe, their purpose being to inspire alien beings with their peaceful spirit and intelligence and to instruct them in the ways of living without violence and possible extinction."

Gipe then explained why most gremlins are bad:

" Soon after these first departures it was discovered that Mogturmen’s creatures were highly unstable. To be exact, fewer than one in a thousand retained the sweet disposition and charitable aims built into it by the inventor. Instead, something went wrong. Very wrong. The Mogwai himself knew of the unstable Mogwai, being well versed in the historical background of his species. He preferred not to think of the complications that had developed, but it was nearly impossible not to. It was, after all, part of his heritage. Closing his eyes as he relaxed in his cage awaiting his supper, he mused briefly on the wars, landslides, and famines that had taken place on Kelm-6, Clinpf-A, and even here on Earth because of his creator’s miscalculations and willingness to disseminate an untested creature. Small wonder Mogturmen had been punished by having his . . . The Mogwai pushed the thought from his mind. True, Mogturmen had failed in the overall, but he himself was one of the successes, the one in a thousand who still embodied all the good things put there by his high-minded inventor. Yet his existence, he knew, had no long-term benefits for society. Gentle as he was, he was a distinct threat to those around him. Just a few drops of water, a morsel of food at the wrong time, and—"

According to Gipe's bonkers Gremlins backstory, most of these created space alien Mogwai go bad due to some sort of mutation. The Mogwai who will be known later as Gizmo is one of the few not to be affected and keeps his "peaceful spirit." It's a crazy idea, but still a fun one for how off the wall Gipe went and was allowed to go.

But why can't the gremlins kill Gizmo? No worries, Gipe had an explanation for that as well in a scene where the Mogwai language is translated to English.

"Stripe balled his short pointed fingers into something resembling fists. 'I want to kill you,' he said coldly. 'But I can't. Something is holding me back.' 'It's the one responsible emotion Mogturmen was able to keep in us,' Gizmo explained. 'We're incapable of killing each other.' 'You have other information we need,' Stripe continued. 'There's something that can kill us in large doses, cause us pain in smaller doses. What is it?' 'You will find out soon enough.' 'Chetz-wubba!' Stripe rasped, swearing in Mogwai. 'Why must you be so secretive?'

If you thought Gremlins was a strange enough premise as a film, it has nothing on how far the novel is willing to go.

Will 'Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai' Give Us More Insight Into Gizmo?

Gremlins fans have clamored for a third film for over three decades, but as of now, though a new film has been announced several times, it has yet to happen. The new Max animated series, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai , brings Gizmo back to the screen for the first time in thirty-three years. It will create its own backstory for the Mogwai, but it will not involve space aliens.

Trailers and information released for the series give us a story set very much on Earth in China . It's a prequel that will follow Mr. Wing, who was an old man in the Gremlins films, when he was a young boy. While the show is geared more toward children, rather than being a horror series, it will no doubt go into detail on where the Mogwai come from, which should be somewhere in China. We'll hopefully get some insight into why Gizmo is so good and how his friendship with Wing helps to form that. If Gremlins 3 ever happens, maybe it'll give us another explanation for why Gizmo is who he is, but for now, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai promises, in its title, to reveal a lot about a creature we know so little of.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai premieres May 23 on Max with two episodes. Check out the official trailer below:

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COMMENTS

Love and Monsters movie review (2020)
Dylan O'Brien's charisma goes the distance in the fleeting, but fun enough apocalypse adventure "Love and Monsters," which has the actor navigating an obstacle course of convenient twists, unabashedly cute characters, and mega-sized creepy crawlies. He's done well in a school of acting that has alums like Adam Brody and pre-Lars von ...
Love and Monsters
Apr 28, 2021 Full Review Ian Freer Empire Magazine Love And Monsters is a blast, an unassuming, immensely winning monster movie filled with great lo-fi creatures and a likeable cast. As a template ...
Love and Monsters
Love and Monsters checks a few of my I'm-a-sucker-for movie boxes. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 12, 2022 Jason Shawhan Nashville Scene
'Love and Monsters' Review: Coming-of-Age After the Apocalypse
In "Love and Monsters," an imaginative post-apocalyptic coming-of-age film from the South African director Michael Matthews ("Five Fingers for Marseilles"), an asteroid doesn't destroy ...
'Love and Monsters' Review: Fun Times During the End Times
By Jessica Kiang. Courtesy of Paramount. It's the end of the world as Joel (Dylan O'Brien) knows it and, despite living in an underground bunker for seven years to evade the gigantic mutant ...
Love and Monsters (2020)
Love and Monsters: Directed by Michael Matthews. With Dylan O'Brien, Jessica Henwick, Michael Rooker, Dan Ewing. Seven years after he survived the monster apocalypse, lovably hapless Joel leaves his cozy underground bunker behind on a quest to reunite with his high school sweetheart.
'Love and Monsters' Review
After spending seven years as the only single dude in a survival bunker full of couples, maybe the prospect of a thrilling, quick death wasn't so horrible. Playing like a family-friendly, less ...
Love and Monsters (2020) Movie Review
Love and Monsters Review: This Adventure Comedy Is A Delightful Distraction. Hollywood is no stranger to all manner of post-apocalyptic dystopian movies, but Paramount's new film Love and Monsters takes the genre in a much more light-hearted direction, following a lovesick young man as he ventures through a world of monsters.
'Love and Monsters' review: The best apocalypse adventure since
Joel and Minnow (Greenblatt) share an emotional moment. At its heart, Love and Monsters is the story of Joel's growth as he takes on a terrifying world. It's easy to follow his transformation from ...
Love And Monsters Review
Love And Monsters is a blast, an unassuming, immensely winning monster movie filled with great lo-fi creatures and a likeable cast. As a template for making a leaner, less bloated summer movie ...
Love and Monsters Review: A Fun and Imaginative Post ...
"Love and Monsters" is the rarest kind of movie these days: A funny, original, genre-mashing adventure made with big studio money.
'Love and Monsters' Movie Review: A Romantic's Guide to the Apocalypse
Once upon a time, there was an asteroid heading toward our planet that threatened to wipe out all of humanity. The good news is that, having learned a lot from endless viewings of Armageddon, the ...
Love and Monsters
Seven years after the Monsterpocalypse, Joel Dawson (Dylan O'Brien), along with the rest of humanity, has been living underground ever since giant creatures took control of the land. After reconnecting over radio with his high school girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick), who is now 80 miles away at a coastal colony, Joel begins to fall for her again. As Joel realizes that there's nothing left ...
Love and Monsters Movie Review
Parents need to know that Love and Monsters is a post-apocalyptic adventure-comedy-thriller starring Dylan O'Brien.He plays Joel, the odd man out in a small underground colony that formed after asteroid pieces hit Earth seven years before, wiping out 95% of the population and turning cold-blooded creatures into monstrous, human-killing mutants.
Love and Monsters Review
Running time: 109 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some creature violence and mild rude humor. From Paramount, Love and Monsters is now available on digital video platforms. Paramount's 'Love and Monsters ...
Love and Monsters
So that's why, after miraculously connecting via radio with his lost love Aimee, Joel decides to hike the 85 miles to her colony's bunker. At first, his friends think he's joking. And then they think he's crazy. And when he steps out the door … they're pretty sure he's monster-chow. Joel, however, is determined.
Love and Monsters (2020)
The storyline was well-written and well-explained, even though it was kinda simple and easy to understand. The characters were very interesting, well-developed and kinda likeable. The filming location of the movie was nice, just a post apocalyptic world full of monsters and destroyed buildings.
Love and Monsters, review: Netflix comes good with a monster-filled
Compared with these predecessors, the Netflix romp Love and Monsters is mercifully zombie-free, while serving up a refreshingly different vibe from the word go. It's not mock-heroic in a winking ...
Love and Monsters (film)
Love and Monsters is a 2020 American monster adventure film directed by Michael Matthews, with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen serving as producers. It stars Dylan O'Brien, Jessica Henwick, Dan Ewing, Michael Rooker, and Ariana Greenblatt.. Development began in 2012 as Monster Problems; the project lingered for several years until October 2018 when O'Brien and then Matthews joined the film.
'Love and Monsters' review: Uncomfortably close to our reality
Dylan O'Brien stars in "Love and Monsters," an action-comedy set seven years after a cataclysm has wiped out more than 90% of Earth's human population. 'Love and Monsters' review: Uncomfortably ...
'Love and Monsters' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
Now streaming on Netflix (and currently a Netflix Top 10 hit), Love and Monsters is part-post-apocalyptic adventure movie, part-love story. We're here to let you know if it's worth traveling ...
Love And Monsters review: An ill-timed sci-fi romance
Love And Monsters arrives at an inopportune time for a movie with a closing message that boils down to "Hey, folks, time to leave your safe little bunkers and rejoin the world, even if that seems ...
Love And Monsters
A man quests across an apocalyptic monster infested land to get to the love of his life. Here's my review for LOVE AND MONSTERS#LoveAndMonsters
Why Is Gizmo the Only Good Gremlin?
In the 'Gremlins' films, all of the creatures turn bad except for Gizmo. The original film's novelization gives us a strange reason for why. Image by Annamaria Ward. In 1984, the Joe Dante ...

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Reviewed online, Ronda, Spain, Oct. 12, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 108 MIN.

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