Monsters | Film by Gareth Edwards (writer and director)

Monsters was made possible by bending the rules, bring really, really determined.

The film was the directing debut for Gareth Edwards… if you recognise the name, it’s because Monsters got him enough recognition to go on to direct Godzilla and Star Wars: Rogue One.

Made on a budget of less than $500,000, it was filmed using consumer-level digital camera, edited on a laptop, filmed in various locations without permission and included local people as extras who improvised all their lines.

Reading all this, you might expect the film to suck… but it doesn’t. Following a journalist reporting on a NASA deep-space probe that has crash-landed in Mexico, it could have resorted to tons of special effects, ridiculous over-the-top aliens and some warfare cliches. But, because of the low budget, it didn’t. Instead it kept things simple — hinting at things, building up tension and then, eventually… well, you’ll have to watch it to find out.