Mon Mon Mon Monsters (original title Bao gao lao shi! Guai guai guai guai wu) is the second Taiwanese horror film I have ever reviewed on this site (after Zombie 108), I found it on the very start of my Shudder queue, I can't remember adding it but I must have stuck it there for a reason so decided to check it out. Written and directed by Giddens Ko, this school based horror may have elements of comedy to it, but it also is very much a horror film in its own right.
Lin Shu-wei (Yu-Kai Teng) is an awkward loner whose school experience is one of constant bullying, due to him having been designated the runt of the school population. Even his form teacher, Ms. Lei (Carolyn Chen) has no time for the student, and so after trying to exonerate himself from being blamed for stealing money after discovering the school's biggest bully (Kent Tsai as the psychotic Duan Ren-hao) and his gang were the ones responsible, Shu-wei is punished along with the bullies. They are made to do community service at a nearby apartment block for old people. With the aim of stealing the belongings of a senile old man (Ti-men Kan) they encounter there, the gang and Shu-wei return late at night, but end up encountering a young monster (Lin Pei-Hsin) who they decide to capture.
Due to their shared secret, the bullied boy is gradually accepted into Ren-hao's gang, and together they torture the little monster, as well as get revenge on those in school who have offended Ren-hao (after discovering monster blood causes terrible side effects if ingested). Unknown to the bullies, Shu-wei has ulterior motives and plans to free the monster, but initially unknown to all of them, the monster had an older sister (Eugenie Liu) who is now on a path of bloody rampage on a mission to rescue her sister.
Mon Mon Mon Monsters was a film that really improved the longer it went on. There was a feel of Deadgirl to the early parts of this, though thankfully this went down more of a torture route than the sexual assault route that horror chose to follow. The make-up effects for both monsters were really cool looking. They have sharp teeth, and seem able to regenerate whenever they are harmed. This is used to sick effect with the bullies beating it and yanking teeth out of their captured creature, as well as drill a metal face plate over the creature's mouth to stop it screaming. The creature's biggest weakness is natural sunlight, with it having a vampire effect of burning and eventually causing the creature to burst into flames. That was the main way they controlled it.
While all that is going on there are also scenes of the bigger monster murdering lots and lots of people. This led to some crazy scenes were literal rooms full of people are brutally killed by the rampaging monster. A much higher body count than I ever expected.
With this story there is the obvious parallel between the literal monsters and the bullies, with the question being asked - who are the real monsters? The real ones were shown in the prologue to murder innocents and drink their blood to survive, but the bullies are just as bad, torturing the creature they captured over a series of days, and Ren-hao in particular having an out of control anger issue, at one point beating a fellow student unconscious with a wooden bar, in full sight of his form tutor who is too intimidated by the psycho to do much to try and stop him.
Shu-wei didn't make for the most likeable protagonist, he is made to seem like a pathetic person and there are many parts where it feels like his ruse might actually be legitimate. He appears to have found some solace in finally finding a group of people who in their own way have came to accept him into their fold. Parts where he has joined in the torture it really seems he is getting a similar sense of pleasure that the others are getting. There were funny moments here, but they happened naturally, this felt like a horror first and foremost that just happened to have some humorous scenes dotted in.
It leads to a bit of a strange looking ending, with much of the final ten minutes having a red tint applied to it, not entirely sure why. It leads to a wonderful finish that really brings the question of who is the bigger monster full circle. Throughout there were a bunch of montage sequences of either the bullies messing around, or the older monster killing people. These scenes were always very fun, I particularly loved the scene where the monster rampages through a school bus full of terrified students.
I enjoyed this Taiwanese horror, it was very well made and appeared to have some great performances. While I didn't really like the lead, he still made for an interesting character, with later plot developments being something I found pleasing to see occur. Mon Mon Mon Monsters can currently be streamed on Shudder.
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