Monsters (2010 film, super low budget)

Can't believe there's not a thread on this already.

Filmed on a budget of about half a million dollars and featuring unknown actors and mainly locals as extras.

Saw it last night, I would highly recommend.

It's a road movie, a sci-fi drama, a horror fim without being any of those.

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_-gL3U1T5Y

Considering how good it looks on that budget I think directors like Spielberg and Cameron should be punched savagely and repeatedly in the testes for wasting money.

Really loved this film. Best new film I saw this year, though that's a pretty small pool I'm drawing from. Lovely stuff. Really cool that the aliens are just animals gone feral, rather than typical "invaders"-type thing.

this is showing down the block, have debated

saw the preview for the first time only yesterday. looks great!

This was available on itunes a couple months ago.. Its pretty good, but its bs that it was made for half a million dollars. Theres absolutely no way.

why so certain?

i mean, i'd agree that the photography alone looks too good for that budget, but things are different now with high-quality digital. much less need for expensive lighting setups, for one things. and there are ways to get expensive goods/services on the cheap, even for free...

this dude must have had a shitload of vfx people owe him favors then

apaz it was previously quoted as a $15,000 budget (which *is* obviously BS - I think that's jst for the cameras etc), however the 500k one seems legit - all the vfx was done by the director on his lappy.

Just finished watching it, quite enjoyed it. $15,000 is like £8,000 isn't it? There's no way it cost that, the food budget for the extras would be more that that. As for the effect being done on his laptop, would really like to see some proof or making of to confirm this.

this was pretty good. loved the final scene with the monsters. couldn't help feeling like i was expecting a bit more carnage though. the poster gives the wrong vibe.

Better than that skyline thing that's just been released, that was awful.

although, the sucking thousands of people up in one go was quite impressive.

fing awesome film

The director himself says the $15,000 is bullshit, and I think the real number was more like $500,000. This was in some print interview I read. But all the extras were unpaid people who really do those jobs in real life (soldiers, the ferry ticket guy, etc), playing themselves. And I think the 2 main people were unpaid too.

really? wow. they must have been banking on the exposure being more valuable than the paycheck, huh

Ok so sorry to be nerdy but what camera did he use, it's a 5D right?

yeah, 5D.

enjoyed this. felt like if you like before sunrise/before sunset then you will like this movie, but don't go in expecting amazing action.

loved that the only real jump were the cuts to scenes with outboard motors.

it was shot with a sony ex3, not a stills camera by the way.

SPOILER .... totally didn't get the plot loop at the end, was sure i'd seen the attack in the opening scene on the news in mexico during the main timeline of the film

the chick is too damn hot, and really unfixates your focus on this being a world of drear, hopelessness, and fear when you and all your buddies are entirely conscious that you all have boners.

an interview in empire actually noted this, that when casting the director - whatever his name is - originally pushed her aside because she was just way too good looking and would ultimately detract from how seriously he wanted audiences to take his film. and then he realized he enjoyed going to work every morning with her there and ultimates hormones ruled once more.

haha, she was definitely the weak link in the acting/charisma imo

lol, so apparently this dude is doing a godzilla remake.

it was shot with a sony ex3, not a stills camera by the way.

― caek, Wednesday, 5 January 2011 00:45 (17 hours ago) Bookmark

talking about the photographers/actors camera, not what the film was shot with.

oic

this ruled!

otm v good

ehhh there was a lot of plot stupidity in this, not to mention character stupidty, and {{ *** SPOILER *** }} having the guy pick up the girl from a hospital after she's been injured in the opening scene even though the opening scene actually happens after the end of the movie was uber confusing, but i suppose that was intentional hmm. did look very good though and the effects were great - static devastation scenes anyway, the monsters were ... good enough.

As for the effect being done on his laptop, would really like to see some proof or making of to confirm this.

There's something on the extras about this, where he goes into quite a lot of detail (too much for me I got a bit bored) but it was great to see them editing the film as they went, setting up editing "suites" in their hotel rooms.

He did do all the fx himself tho. He's a very patient person (is what comes over the most), changing all the signs in photoshop (not photoshop, but you know something like that) to make them more "alien invasion-y".

Yeah the effects were largely done with widely available programs like 3ds Max and Adobe After Effects.