Written and directed by Caroline Lindy (pictured above), horror comedy Your Monster follows struggling actress Laura Franco (played by Scream’s Melissa Barrera) who, after battling an illness and being dumped by the love of her life, returns to her childhood home to recover. But to her horror, she discovers a monster (played by Tommy Dewey) living in her bedroom closet who, it turns out, is quite the charmer. Over time, they forge an unlikely connection as Monster helps Laura stand up to her narcissistic ex and fight for the lead role in his show that was promised to her.
We sat down with Caroline Lindy to find out more…
How did you first get the idea for Your Monster?
The movie is loosely based on an experience that happened to me. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was broken up with by someone I was madly in love with at the time, and his career was taking off. Mine wasn’t. This was years ago, but I was raised to be this nice, sweet little girl, and at that moment in my life, I had all this rage that was pouring out of me, and I didn’t know what to do with it. I was like ‘who is this person?’ and I was just getting to know the side of myself that had been dormant for most of my life.
In society, we’re not taught to develop strong relationships with our anger as young women. I was like ‘if someone doesn’t hold me back, I’m gonna kill somebody’ and obviously I didn’t kill someone, but over this period, I developed this relationship with my anger and it was kind of like I’d developed a relationship with my monster, and it started to feel good, because your monster stands up for you.
I felt like because I didn’t have a relationship with that side of myself, I let people walk all over me. I let bad things happen to me, and I invited toxicity into my life. The second I started to fall in love with that side of myself, I was like, ‘you know what? I’m not going to get into relationships like this anymore’. When everything with the cancer ended up being fine, and I got healthy, it was a very empowering emotional relationship for me.
I love love stories, I love rom-coms, and I thought this was a cute idea for a love story about a girl who is going through the worst moment of her life and then falls in love with her monster. An unlikely love story that’s kind of like a new version of Beauty And The Beast. Then I started writing and just fell in love with this world.
That must have been quite cathartic for you…
Yes, completely. I remember finishing writing the last page of the first draft of the feature and sobbing. Just the fact that I had taken the most terrible moment in my life thus far and turned it into something creative. I felt like it was outside of myself, something that was productive and moving towards a dream.
I was like ‘oh my god, Caroline, good job!’ because I was so massively depressed during that period, I felt the lowest of the low. I couldn’t get up off the floor. Then you write a 110-page script, and you’re like ‘I could conquer the world!’ It was a really incredible feat for me personally. The sad thing became something of beauty and joy and love, which is, I think, why a lot of people make art.
Why go down the comedy horror route rather than a straight drama?
I think because I just love romantic comedies. For me, the best way to move past a horrible moment in your life is to laugh and to fall in love again. And falling in love doesn’t feel very dramatic. Falling in love is the best feeling in the world.
This movie is supposed to empower the heartbroken ones. It’s supposed to get us up off the floor. If I made it all drama, (not that there isn’t drama in the movie), I feel like we would end on a sour note, and we wouldn’t be moving forward in our life. We would be stuck in this kind of depressing bubble where everything sucks and life is miserable and I just didn’t want to dwell there.
With this being based on your life, how closely did you work with Melissa Barrera on the central character?
We worked really closely together. Early on I talked about my own experience, and she talked about her own experiences, and how she related to the character. We agreed that it was hers. She took what she needed from me, what was helpful, and what wasn’t helpful, and then combined it, and merged it with all our favorite leads in rom-coms.
That’s what makes her such an amazing actress. She can delicately colour this character, and thread all these different inspirations together so seamlessly to create one cohesive person.
We were constantly riffing off each other and playing. We were real partners in this film. She is such a leader. She’s such a talent. She’s completely fearless and she’s like the Energizer Bunny! Haha. She won’t stop until it’s just right. She’s the most talented, and the loveliest person in the world. We are all extremely honored and grateful that she took a chance on this little indie movie – that really changed everything for us.
Why did you not give Monster a name in the movie?
I think because when I first started writing it, I just named him Monster, and I got used to it. I’m like, ‘that’s cute’.
When I was first starting to play around with characters, Laura would always call him Monster, and it was just a placeholder until I figured out who he was, and I just grew attached to it. That’s who he is to her. He’s her Monster. He would have become something else if he was like Harry the Monster, or Bob the Monster. It would have given him a different effect. I’m happy that it ended with him being Monster.
On one hand, you could argue, does that make him a one-dimensional character? But I think that there’s this simplicity to him that is reflective in the name of Monster, where he is both extremely complex, and this charming, intellectual, wise guardian angel-type figure, but he’s also like the ID and says what he feels, and does what he wants. So there’s a directness with that name that works really well with him.
How did you develop the look for Monster?
Another score we got was David LeRoy Anderson at AFX studio, who’s a two-time Oscar winner. I was a huge fan of his. He’s a prosthetic makeup artist, and special effects makeup artist, he’s done Nutty Professor, Men in Black, and Cabin in the Woods. He’s the real deal.
I was like, ‘there’s no way we can afford him. There’s no way he’s going to do this’. And my brilliant producer, one of my best friends, Kayla Foster, was like, ‘I’m gonna call and see if he would read the script’.
So she called him and when he finally picked up, she’s like, ‘I have this script, the budget is zero. Would you read it? The monster is really lovable’.
She sent him my short film. He loved the short. He loved this character because he was like ‘I never get to make lovable monsters. I always create creatures that kill people and are covered in blood!’ So that prospect really excited him and then we met, it was like instant love. He’s one of the best people I know, he’s such an artist.
The first iteration of him was too handsome. He was too Ron Perlman in Beauty and The Beast. And we’re like, ‘okay, we’re going to tone it down a bit. We have to, at first, find him a tad grotesque, a tad mysterious and scary. Then over the course of the film, he has to be handsome enough that we can fall in love with him, and the audience can get more drawn to his look’.
So he ended up coming up with a sketch that was, a little bit the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, and then the Beast from Beauty And The Beast. And a little bit like a goat man.
We were like ‘why are Guillermo del Toro’s creatures and the creatures in Border so amazing?’ There’s a realness. It doesn’t feel too prosthetic, or plasticky. He found that perfect balance with limited budgets. He crushed it. Eventually, he sent over the sketch and I was like ‘there he is. There’s Monster. So nice to meet you’.
Over the course of the last few years, we always think ‘oh this is the last time we’re gonna see Monster’ and then there’s a press thing. Then Dave and Tommy get back together, and he’s made up once more. We’re always all so excited to see him again. I hope there’s a convention one day where we can keep on seeing Monster again!
What’s coming up next for you?
Oh, man, there’s a bunch of things in the works! I’m writing things. I’m attached to direct things. It’s lots of romance and lots of wacky ideas with strong female leads.
I had a baby this year too so I’m slowly getting back into everything, but next year, hopefully, I’ll be able to say what’s officially happening and share with everyone what I’m doing. There’s some more supernatural love stuff that’s that I’m working on which is exciting!