Monster Island Picks Clean the Bare Bones of its Creature Feature Premise
Like so many of the creatures depicted within, “guy in a suit” monster movies are undeniably an endangered species at this point. Given the ever-increasing affordability of computer-generated VFX, or even the near effortless application of A.I. to the cynical task of churning out sloppy genre entertainment, few productions of this nature (especially low-budget ones) are conceived with the intent to structure themselves around an intricately detailed monster costume with a human performer inside. There’s no question as to why this is the case: Practical FX are judged more harshly by viewers, are more expensive, difficult and time-consuming to execute, and there exists a bargain bin horror-obsessive demographic that is still happy to continue watching those direct-to-video, CGI-driven monster spectacles. To dedicate an entire creature feature to a monster costume demonstrates undeniable passion for the art of creating tactile entertainment, which makes Shudder’s new WWII horror story Monster Island a charming throwback in many respects. The Singaporean production is disarmingly old fashioned, aspires to very little, but is refreshingly direct all the same. It’s just … an odd couple monster movie! That’s it! And there are certainly worse things to be.
Monster Island–which Simpsons die hards will want to note does indeed appear to be a conventional island, rather than a secret peninsula–is a bare-bones production that appears to have wisely spent its budget, largely on creating the best possible titular monster, and then not skimping on the creature-derived gore. Set in the Pacific theater of WWII, it depicts two prisoners of war–one Japanese soldier, and one British–who escape from a doomed, dripping, septic “hell ship” transporting POWs when it is torpedoed via less-than-inspiring digital FX, only to wash up on an uncharted island that is home to a deadly aquatic fish man adversary, dubbed the “Orang Ikan.” Shackled together at the ankle, we’re essentially given a starting prompt that is one part The Defiant Ones and one part the opening WWII sequence of Kong: Skull Island, with a dash of They Live’s absurd, endless fistfight as the two seeming enemies grapple with each other in a beach brawl until the more dangerous monster threat reveals itself. Quickly (very quickly, given the 83 minute runtime), Saito (Dean Fujioka) and Bronson (Callum Woodhouse) cast aside their differences and join forces in a battle for survival in the jungles of Indonesia, where much of the film was (to its credit) shot.
As the above-cited runtime would suggest, there’s not much time for Monster Island to extend itself in any particular direction beyond creature thrills. Although there would no doubt be ample opportunity in this premise to explore the psychological ramifications of being taken prisoner in the midst of wartime, or Saito’s secret transgression that got him locked up by his own comrades in arms, few of these character beats are explored in any meaningful way. The two forge an alliance that the screenplay probably describes as “tenuous” or “uneasy,” but in truth they just begin working together as if they’re old friends almost immediately, despite neither speaking a word of the other’s language. None of this relationship-building really is given the air or space to feel earned, making a sappy last-act reminiscence about their “friendship”–repeating a scant handful of their interactions we saw less than an hour ago–feel particularly forced. It’s almost easier for the audience to project their own characterizations upon the two, and that honestly works just as well.