Overlook 2023 Film Festival – Monolith does so much with so little. It’s a single-location work featuring one on-screen actress who carries the film through a riveting and unsettling performance. Despite how scaled down this feature is, there are some truly tense and eerie moments here that make stellar use of the limited cast and location.

Lily Sullivan plays a character called The Interviewer. After losing her job as a journalist because she didn’t vet a source properly and instead accused someone of a crime without sufficient evidence, she starts a mystery podcast after making a public apology. Soon, she receives a series of strange calls and emails about bricks that appear around the world and very well may be extraterrestrial in origin. It all starts after she receives an anonymous tip about someone named Florame King (voiced by Ling Cooper Tang). From there, she becomes obsessed with the story and goes down one rabbit hole after the other. The podcast grows in listeners, and The Interviewer doesn’t relent. She’s too fixated upon increasing her numbers and a story that could be “career-defining,” as she puts it.

Directed by Matt Vesely and written by Lucy Campbell, Monolith is also a film about privilege, specifically who has power and who doesn’t. The Interviewer’s privilege is pretty evident from the get-go. After someone doxxed her, she found refuge at her parents’ massive vacation home. This is where the film takes place. When she eventually talks to Florame, she edits and twists her words around in order to increase her followers. She doesn’t care if it causes harm. Even worse, Florame shares a story about a wealthy family she once worked for who stole the brick from her. She’s terrified the family will hear her on the air and seek retribution. That doesn’t matter to The Interviewer. After editing and reshaping Florame’s story, she broadcasts it. Meanwhile, there’s a white art collector, Klaus (voiced by Terence Crawford), who uses his wealth to accumulate the bricks because he’s certain they have a strange power. This is another point of privilege. Both the art collector and The Interviewer take something from marginalized communities to benefit themselves.

So much of the film relies on audio, as we see The Interviewer listen to and record the stories and personal anecdotes. There are some truly disquieting moments as the subjects recount their uncanny experiences with the bricks. One recalls the stench of rotting meat. Meanwhile, The Interviewer becomes totally obsessed, and Sullivan really does a great job in this performance, as her character becomes consumed with the story and simply won’t let it go, no matter how many times she’s warned to drop it. The bricks spread through word of mouth. Still, that doesn’t stop her from going on the air to further her career.

All of this leads to a final act that’s chilling, startling, and downright spooky. What Monolith does especially well is give a haunting twist to the classic alien invasion story, after exploring themes of class and power. With so little, Monolith does quite a lot. Before you catch Sullivan in Evil Dead Rise, make sure to see her in this spine-tingling sci-fi thriller.

8 Out of 10