“Monster Summer” (2024)
“Monster Summer” is an all-around disappointment.
It is billed as a family-friendly alternative to other horror films out this fall, but it has none of the fun that is a guiding light in the kid-appropriate Halloween film subgenre.
Instead, it gets bogged by a depressing combination of exploring trauma from the past of the main characters and the horrific moments of the summer depicted in the film.
On top of that, the film’s title is a bit misleading. I thought I was going in for perhaps an onslaught of monsters ruining some kids’ summer, but there is just one villain: a witch who is leaving her child victims behind in a stupor.
I did appreciate that the main kid in the film, Noah (Mason Thames), was into journalism, but this aspect of his life combined with other dimensions of his character just added on to the feeling that “Monster Summer” should be for kids while having nothing that would make them enjoy it.