Monolith is a slow-burn minimalist cryptic sci-fi thriller/horror amalgam that doesn’t go anywhere… slowly. It’s about a woman creating her own creepypaste podcast through interviews and dialog with off-screen characters. In other words, it might as well have been a fictional podcast for the little visual information it presents.

She’s investigating a scary black brick… and every time they ominously said black brick, I imagined stepping on the most evil black Lego brick imaginable… which is probably not the intended reaction. But, yeah, it seems there are evil psychologically scarring black bricks showing up in the US mail causing people to go a little mad sometimes. 

Got chills already? Now imagine the sequel about evil four-sided dice or jacks. I’m being flip and that’s a little unfair since this single-woman show premise could have worked… but it was just too nebulous and too broad for me. I was never engaged by their clear attempts to create a creepy, unsettling, and uncertain atmosphere. And without that, the movie doesn’t have much else. 

I think others are enjoying the burn on this one but I didn’t. It’s an admirable attempt at low-fi sci-fi but it didn’t work for me.

Score: 67