The Monsters Without (2023) by Randall Kamradt

Director: Randall Kamradt

Year: 2023

Country: Philippines

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Action/Fantasy; Creature Feature

Plot:

Recruited into their company, a woman welcomes her fiance into the environmental protection agent P.H.A.S.E., a special project designed to protect the world from a race of monsters known as Yablo. Along with the other members of the organization, they set out to ensure the world is safe from the creatures and to document what they can about them for future generations to know about. As they go about their work, they discover a terrifying, ancient Yablo called Nameless has arrived to return the creatures to their home dimension which would spell the end of humanity if it goes to plan, forcing the team and the monsters they protect to band together to save the world.

Review:

Overall, this one has quite a lot to like about it. One of the main selling points here is the story that employs a broad, sweeping universe to play around in. The creatures' existence and presence in the world is treated as an everyday, mundane fact of life that is still unknown to the world at large. That makes the interaction with the team and the creatures feel rather unique as they attempt to explore and document the Yablo's presence and population which is a rather fine touch. That extends to the internal explanations for the various creatures they come across who are treated with a sense of real-world integration that gives everything a lived-in feel. Combined with the usage of genuine Philippine folklore in the various Yablo that are encountered or mentioned as well as a slew of genre Easter eggs and the setup works rather well.

This setup then gives the film a great fantasy setup to carry out a solid series of confrontations with the creatures. With the initial introduction of the reunited couple confronting each other at the cave with the shadow children coming to life and tormenting the group, a great encounter at a resort where a shapeshifter causes havoc with their abilities, and the big battle taking place across the metropolis, this one provides some fun whimsical-based encounters. Staying lighter in tone than traditional creature features but still having worldwide implications with Nameless' desire to remove the Yablo from Earth, the tone feels more in line with comic-book-style Action fare with how P.H.A.S.E. confronts each of his attempts. The practical effects and make-up for these scenes are fun which helps to add to that Fantasy/Action style established here while the over-the-top CGI completes the picture making this a fun enough time.

That said, this one does have some issues holding it down. One of the main factors is a rather uneven tone featured throughout that comes from trying to cram too much into the film. As the main focal point is in trying to interweave a series of localized Philippine folklore with an Action film aesthetic, it serves us quite well in getting to know the various creatures but not much else. The exploits of P.H.A.S.E. are a complete mystery and it's sometimes hard to lose the characters with the advent of shapeshifting being a regular occurrence. On top of that, the presentation here is somewhat all over the place due to these varied elements and influences getting a chance to be introduced here, with Horror-based creature feature action, Fantasy-style exploits, and general romantic comedy elements that come together into a singular film. This amount of content could’ve used a bit more time to breathe than what we get here but beyond that there are not a whole lot of detrimental factors here.

Overview: ***/5

A solid enough amalgamation of influences that work more often than not, there’s a lot to like within this one while only getting undone with a few issues that do impact the film somewhat. Viewers who are intrigued by the concept or are curious about the number of influences present will find a lot to like with this one while those that aren’t into these should factors should heed caution.

This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.