don’t care anymore. We’re going off and we’re using these tools to make films. We don’t necessarily need Hollywood. Because if you don’t need loads of money to go do anything you can imagine, then there is no fear factor about playing it safe in terms of storytelling.” That said, Edwards, despite


initial thoughts that perhaps they weren’t necessary to re- veal, was determined to show audiences his monsters. “It’s such an old trick, this


idea of ‘don’t show the monster, the imagination is better than reality,’” he says. “It’s like when you walk down the street and you’ve got a girl in front of you. Every time you picture her being gorgeous, and she turns around and she’s alright, even if she’s average-looking. But your brain always goes straight to gor- geous. It’s the same with mon- sters. If you don’t show it, your brain imagines something way better. Now the irony is, if you were suddenly to stop the film and chuck a thousand sketch pads into the audience and say, ‘Sketch what you’re imagining now,’ you’re not really imagin- ing any-


thing. They couldn’t draw it. There’s this strange point in your brain where nothing is confirmed or denied but everything’s very ex- citing with the possibilities.” Like the rest of the film, the design of Mon-


sters’ monsters is an invention of logic. Ed- wards explains that the most likely source of extraterrestrial life in our solar system is Eu- ropa, a Jovian moon whose icy surface is cracked, suggesting a volcanic core hot enough to heat the oceans under the ice, a condition nearly identical to that under which life on Earth began. Scien- tists have planned for years to send probes there to search for some- thing living. Says Ed- wards: “I just thought, ‘Well, the logical continu- ation is they bring the sample back, and there’s every chance when it comes back to Earth, it crashes. And then that’s the beginning of your monster movie.” Exactly what the monsters of Monsters


look like will not be spoiled here, nor would the studio supply Rue Morgue with photos of the creatures anyway. A quick Google search similarly fails to yield any results, a situation for which Edwards is grateful. “I’m quite surprised because there’s noth-


ing stopping someone from going into the cinema with their iPhone and just taking a few pictures and videos even,” he says. “But what’s interesting is when you look on the in- ternet, even if someone mentions a spoiler in their comment about the film, other people attack that person, like, ‘You’ve ruined it for me! I didn’t want to know that! Thanks a lot!’ I think people actually don’t want to see it, don’t want to know. If it feels like it’s the choice of the filmmaker not to show you it, then it’s part of the expe- rience to not know it going in.” As to the film’s unique blending of


science fiction, horror and romance, Edwards, a self-confessed geek whose DVD collection is comprised of one-third B-movies, wants to re- assure horror fans that Monsters is right up their darkened alley.


“When you hear there is that [romantic] el-


ement to the film, don’t let it worry you. I am a massive B-movie fan, and I grew up with sci-fi and horror. There’s no way on Earth that I would make some sloppy romantic film.” Edwards’ fandom especially comes out


when he talks about Ray Harryhausen, whom he met while helping a friend make a docu- mentary on the stop-motion pioneer. “I got to go around his house, and it was really cool because it was quite clear that I knew a lot more than this [film- maker],” he says. “So he started talking to me, and it ended up I got to hold his Oscar. The best mo- ment was when I was chatting to him about what he thought about Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. He’s like, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen any- thing.’ … And I just hap- pened to have [the trailer] on my laptop. So I ended up showing Ray Harry-


hausen Peter Jackson’s King Kong trailer! I remember putting the headphones on him and thinking, ‘This has got to be a significant moment for me!’ These two legends are the reason why I love monster movies, and [I’m] kind of connecting them somehow.” Likewise, Edwards hopes that horror fans


connect with his low-budget epic monster movie, even if it’s as much a love story as a creature feature. “It feels like a choice: potentially annoy a


lot of people who see your film or annoy a lot of people who never went to see it because they didn’t know about it,” he rationalizes. “If you have to pick one, I’d prefer for people to see it and be annoyed with me than [to have] no one see it.”


RM28


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72