Love In the Time of Monsters is the tale of two sisters who get in way over their heads during a stay at a themed tourist trap/resort one summer. Our heroines are hired on to participate in the resort’s Bigfoot and oddly Americana themed events and quickly things begin to go wrong as soon as they arrive. Between toxic pollution turning people and animals into flesh-hungry undead beasts, corrupt foreign resort owners and a girl just trying to get laid, Love in the Time of Monsters is a throwback featuring nods to films like Tremors and Evil Dead 2 to Alien and Cabin Fever.
I’m not always into movies like this, but this one definitely has things that work. While watching Love in the Time of Monsters, I was kinda reminded of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil. Modern comedy is a mixed bag that doesn’t always connect well, but in the case of these two movies, horror parody and satire is what winds up working. Monsters is at it’s best when the film focuses on its rough and flawed characters as they try desperately to impress others and that’s where the comedy element connects.
So our two main characters are going to work at a resort ran by a corrupt European weirdo who dresses like Uncle Sam for the sake of awkward advertising, and when they arrive at their summer job all hell breaks loose. One sister wants to meet up with her fiancee while the other just wants to get laid, and what stands in their way is a plot about toxic dumping that turns employees and forest animals into deadly mutants. On top of that, Doug Jones and Kane Hodder are here to add to all the fun craziness.
I would recommend this one if you dig these kind of modern parodies of classic horror tropes and wanna see some ridiculous girl-power versus mutant moose and squirrel action. The Bigfoot plot makes for some absurd fun and watching Kane Hodder run around in a monkey suit, only to become Horace Pinker’s mutant-zombie cousin is pretty fun and Doug Jones looks like he is having a great time as a science expert who works at the resort as an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. Gena Shaw and Marissa Skell are also great on screen as well. Give it a shot, it’s worth seeing.
Hawkins’ Rating:
Out of a Possible 5 Stars
