In Adirondack, New York, there has been a rash of bizarre disappearances. Mostly young women, and under mysterious circumstances. While it may seem bizarre to most, for those conspiracy theorists on the east coast, the answer is obvious – Sasquatch. Bigfoot, “Squatch”, whatever you may call him, our favorite furry cryptid is everyone’s pet culprit for anything bizarre and unexpected. He’s an intrinsic part of our cultural lexicon – so famous that small children know his name – and now he’s being framed for murder.

Sylvia (Anna Shields) and her friend Jamie (Grant Schumacher) are on the case, after their friend goes missing. Jamie works up an insane scheme to get up to the location of the disappearances, and clues Sylvia into his plan the night before. She does everything she can to convince him to stop, let her tag along, or just drop it. There’s too much at risk. The morning he’s supposed to leave, he’s taken down with a bad case of food poisoning, and when Sylvia realizes the target he’s supposed to be meeting up with is a woman, she opts to take her chances and go in his place. Alex (Rachel Finninger) needs a ride up to a wedding she’s going to photograph, and has made a deal with Jamie – who has catfished her the entire time into believing that he is a she. So, when Alex sees Sylvia walk up, all is right in her mind, and they hit the road. Sylvia goes by “Jamie” and begins to lie through her teeth in hopes of keeping the peace and getting the information she needs.

As Sylvia and Alex make their way to the boonies, Sylvia notices more and more about Alex doesn’t quite add up. And somehow, at the same time, they begin to discover an undeniable infatuation with each other. Their attraction takes over, and what started out as a simple business transaction becomes more. But the more Sylvia learns and the closer they get to their destination, the less safe she feels, and for good reason. These two women walk a tightrope of lies and truth, and as their web is woven tighter and tighter, an undeniable danger grows closer and closer.

MONSTROUS may look in its first few moments like a monster movie, but it’s anything but. A mystery, thriller, romantic crime film might be a way I’d describe MONSTROUS. It’s slow to get on its feet, and takes several sharp and sudden turns, while seemingly maintaining an almost systematic, cyclical storytelling motif. MONSTROUS makes a crucial mistake in its likeability (or lack thereof), and weaponizes the sexuality of our leads. What could be a lesbian love story is more of a manipulation and power play – it doesn’t come from honesty, and both characters use romance and sex as a ploy to get what they want. It’s difficult to follow what is honest and organic at any point in the story – there are so many lies happening simultaneously, that I found myself struggling to keep track.

MONSTROUS suffers, and so do we, from a repetitive series of day to night timelines, as if the writer didn’t know how to end a day without certain events occurring. It leaves the timeline sort of fluid and uninteresting, and even with frequent revisits to Jamie frantically making his way to Sylvia after he realizes something is wrong, with repeated reference to when he will be arriving, there’s very little to hold the timeline together. Then, with time seemingly stalling, there’s a rush to the climax that dizzied me and hit me over the head with extreme blunt force- much like some of the injuries sustained in the last act of the film. Which I also feel the need to mention – there is some extreme gore here, and uncomfortable lingering visuals that even I, a seasoned horror/gore vet, balked at.

One thing I would have loved more of is the Sasquatch himself, who gets not nearly enough screen time. I will say, I credit the team for not over displaying a monster, which is a death knell to so many movies like this, but from what I saw it was so gorgeous that I wanted more. I suppose there are worse problems to have, and it drives home the point – While it’s easy to assume the large, lumbering beast is the creature we must fight – who is the real monster here?

6/10 stars