In a couple respects, Book of Monsters is admirable and that makes me wish I liked it. But it was too sluggishly paced to save itself, no matter how much it tried to be cool.

The flick is about a little girl whose mom is killed by the monster under the bed. She grows up into a nervous, shy teen who throws an 18th birthday party that isn’t going well (what with the mean girls in attendance). But then the monsters show up, the blood flows red, and it turns into game of survival.

What’s cool about this low budget flick is how they use the budget to their advantage. The monsters in this flick are all practical effects – men in suits of various sizes and grossness. I think they couldn’t afford CGI even if they wanted to use it. So instead they used their limits to make an 80s throwback film and that’s admirable. Just as admirable as the geysers of blood and practical squibs.

But, yeah, when the chaos erupts and our heroes have to fight to survive, there’s just too many scenes of people hiding behind sofas or slowly, carefully analyzing the titular book of monsters. And even when the action picks up, it’s still got a case of the sluggards. This movie really needed more energy and thrills to go with its monster theme.

I wish I enjoyed it more – I find the attempt, the inspiration, and the effects all very admirable. And maybe if you’re more forgiving than judgey me, you might dig it.

Score: 68