Mon Mon Mon Monsters is a 2017 Taiwanese comedy horror film written, co-produced and directed by Giddens Ko (writer of The Tenants Downstairs). It stars Eugenie Liu, Kent Tsai and Yu-Kai Teng. The Mandarin title translates as “Report to the teacher! Strange strange monster”
A group of teenagers capture a man-eating monster…
“Monsters paints a disturbing picture of contemporary youth culture while delivering gruesome sights that’ll have horror hounds howling in approval. Though slim in analyzing of what has driven these kids to such extremes, Ko’s vividly decorated and atmospherically filmed exercise in nihilistic horror is a mighty fine ride for those who like this sort of thing.” Richard Kuipers, Variety
“Visually and technically, Ko owes a debt to the J-horror wave of the 1990s (Ring in particular), but he’s built a suitably grim palette for Monsters, with Chou Yi-Hsien’s (Love Off the Cuff) claustrophobic images and Pao Cheng-Hsun and Huang Mei-Cing’s splattery special effects serving the story perfectly.” Elizabeth Kerr, The Hollywood Reporter
“Mon Mon Mon Monsters is a wacky and frequently entertaining high school horror-comedy that has just the right balance of novel and familiar elements. At the helm, Ko presents himself once more as an ace stylist as he taps a fantastically deep well of imagination. On the other hand, it also displays a disturbing knack for cruelty that won’t sit well with some viewers, who may also find it hard to latch on emotionally due to a lack of sympathetic characters.” Pierce Conran, Screen Anarchy
“The director’s ultimate aim is to represent the evilness of humanity and how ultimately everyone exists in varying shades of grey […] The film is incredibly picturesque, calling back to a lot of J-horror 90s flicks with a dark colour palette and beautiful special effects. Mon Mon Mon Monsters is definitely not one for the faint hearted, but it’s an excellent film all the same.” Andrew Daley, Eastern Kicks
Despite its utterly bleak world view, Mon Mon Mon Monsters offers plenty to delight horror fans, with a dazzling visual style, a number of standout set pieces – including a bloody encounter on a school bus – and compelling performances from a mostly young cast. As a storyteller, however, Ko sells himself short. Emotional pay-offs are missed, supporting characters go underdeveloped…” James Marsh, South China Morning Post
” …the latest from Giddens Ko doesn’t quite take pleasure in its cruelty, but it is unflinching in how it uses school bullying as its backdrop for a supernatural horror story. A lot of viewers might hit the point of enough being enough or outright disbelief even before the dismemberment starts in earnest, although they probably shouldn’t.” Jay Seaver, eFilm Critic
