How to Kill Monsters is a 2023 British comedy horror film about the sole survivor of a massacre who must team up with cops and criminals to defend a police station from an invasion by Lovecraftian creatures.
Directed and co-produced by Stewart Sparke (Book of Monsters; The Creature Below) from a screenplay co-written with co-producer Paul Butler. Also produced by Paul Cal O’Connell. The movie is being partially funded via a Kickstarter campaign.
The Dark Rift Horror/RO Pictures co-production stars Lyndsey Craine (Eating Miss Campbell; Zomblogalypse; Book of Monsters), Arron Dennis (Zomblogalypse; Book of Monsters), Fenfen Huang (Now You See Me 2; Operation Red Sea), Daniel Thrace (The Creature Below; Blood Myth) and Nicholas Vince (Hellraiser; Nightbreed).
Blurb:
“Inspired by genre classics like Evil Dead 2, Gremlins and Hellraiser; How to Kill Monsters is a feature-length movie made for fans of 80s horror. With a dash of British humour in the vein of Hot Fuzz and the self-aware twists and turns of Scream, our goal is to deliver horror fans a blood-soaked popcorn horror movie that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
With a menagerie of monsters realised entirely with practical effects and buckets of fake blood and guts thrown in for good measure, the movie will pay tribute to the classics we grew up watching on VHS, whilst delivering an original story filled with rich characters that you’ll love watching die in horrible ways!”
Plot:
Jamie Lancaster (Lyndsey Craine) is the sole survivor of a blood-drenched massacre at a remote cabin in the woods. Claiming that her friends were torn apart and eaten by a horrific monster, she is arrested by the local cops and locked up for a crime she didn’t commit.
We soon discover that Jamie’s claims of innocence were all too real when the entire police station is ripped from our reality and thrown into a nightmarish dimension of Lovecraftian creatures hungry for human flesh. To survive the night, Jamie must team up with a bunch of rookie cops and lawbreakers to hack and slash their way through an army of monsters and find a way to get back home before it is too late…
Reviews:
“How to Kill Monsters clearly aims to be as silly and over-the-top as possible, making it the perfect movie to enjoy with your friends […] If you happen to be in the mood for an unashamedly old-school monster movie with dedicated performances, tons of practical creatures and gore effects, and enough jokes to leave you in stitches, this really is not a film you can afford to miss.” ★★★★½ Dread Central
” …what should be a fraught battle for survival plays out as slapstick and sitcommy. Still, everyone’s so darn likeable that it’s hard to be too bothered – the main cast has worked together, and it shows. The growth of some of them by the end, particularly the geeky Ruth, who goes from the butt of the joke to badass, was also really pleasing.” ★★★ Horror Cult Films
“It’s mostly a scrappy comedy, continuing the 1980s Charles Band but with Brits vibe of Book, but it uses the fact that it’s going over familiar ground to set up some surprises in the last act which a) is welcome in a comedy horror hijinx vein that’s becoming a trifle stale and b) goes on slightly too long […] For much of the running time, it’s a succession of gruesome comedy spot-gags involving monsters and ropey other dimensional effects…” The Kim Newman Web Site
“So How To Kill Monsters is all at once a Lovecraftian rewrite of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) – with a lot of Joe Dante’s Gremlins (1984) and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987) thrown in – and a splatterfest of Eighties-style practical effects, Raimi-esque pandemonium and blood by the bucketload. Mostly, though, it is very, very funny, sharing its absurd comic tone, and many of its cast members, with Book of Monsters (2018).” Projected Figures
Trailer:
Related:
Director Stewart Sparke talks about How to Kill Monsters – exclusive interview
BOOK OF MONSTERS (2018) Reviews of British comedy horror movie
THE CREATURE BELOW (2016) Reviews and free to watch online
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