Monsters

The best science fiction employs a liberal use of allegory and Monsters ladles it on the screen. The 93-minute tale of two Americans travelling through a rural Mexican “Infected Zone” six years after enormous squiddy aliens have arrived speaks to globalization, US immigration policy, xenophobia and even Iraq, not unlike the way last year’s District 9 addressed South African apartheid policies. But Monsters doesn’t aim for the horror and action spectacle as much as a post-apocalyptic road movie where the critters, for the most part, remain off-screen. This first major motion picture by special effects wizard Gareth Edwards is impressively sure-handed, tension-filled and beautiful to look at, and while it owes a few genuinely scary moments to Jurassic Park,it’s much more thoughtful a creature feature. - Carsten Knox