Originally released to video-on-demand in anticipation of Halloween 2020, Love and Monsters wound up being the perfect counter-programming for Valentine’s Day 2021. It’s hard to see this as anything but a knockoff of Zombieland combined with Monsters, but it still worked, and was able to do some things that those other films couldn’t.
Michael Matthews’ sophomore film sees survivors of the monster apocalypse living in small colonies and scraping to get by. When his underground bunker is breached, our protagonist, Joel, decides waiting around to die alone isn’t worth it and sets out on a journey through the monster-infested countryside to rendevous with his high school sweetheart, Aimee, who he recently reconnected with over the radio.
It’s all vaguely familiar but Brian Duffield and Matthew Robinson’s screenplay still effectively incorporates elements of humor, companionship, and romance. The jokes are a little stiff at times because Joel is delivering them into a void more often than not, but it works best when he comes across Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Arianna Greenblatt). They are great as a trio, but I would have liked more of it.
Dylan O’Brien (Joel) is likable in the lead, playing the guy who hasn’t really changed much since high school and is deathly afraid of confrontation: not a great formula for survival. He narrates quite a bit so the audience gets to see his personality but that rarely lines up with other characters in the movie. Comparatively, he’s a more likable character than Jesse Eisenberg’s Colombus in Zombieland, but the performance isn’t quite as dialed in. O’Brien works best when he’s sharing the screen with Rooker and Greenblatt, and that’s not a knock on him, their dynamic just amplifies all their individual strengths. The canine cast member and the whole “man’s best friend” dynamic goes a long way with making Joel endearing.
Jessica Henwick is solid but relegated mostly to Joel’s love interest, Aimee. Her character is shown to be far more capable than Joel himself and I could imagine a version of this story where she’s actually the lead, but she doesn’t get that much depth here. All of the establishing “chemistry” is told through flashbacks, so it comes across as a little forced but that’s not on her. It’s tough to buy into their love story, but it makes sense in context once you get there.
I wasn’t sure how much Paramount was invested in this project but both the post-apocalyptic design aesthetic and the creature effects were on point, and the soundtrack was fantastic! Had Covid not come and changed the theater landscape, I could see this movie having a profitable theatrical run that lined up at least one sequel if not a franchise trilogy.
As a VOD title, it has not yet found its audience but I can see this movie gaining traction and developing a cult fanbase once it hits streaming distribution. With Paramount network starting, this would be a good title for their library, but asking consumers to buy into yet another streaming service could keep Love and Monsters relatively unknown for a while.
Recommendation: If you enjoyed Zombieland, this should be right up your alley.