Monsters of California Review – A Laugh Out Loud Sc-Fi Fantasy Flick

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Friday, 06 October 2023 12:30

Written by Janet Walker

Monsters of California, from Cartel Pictures and To The Stars, presents the story of three best friends from Encinitas, California, who are on the verge of adult responsibility and fighting every step of the way.

The film opens with our three teens, spending the night in what is notoriously known as a haunted house. Obsessed with aliens, the group leader, Dallas, played by Jack Samson, along with his other two friends, Toe, played by Jack Lancaster, and Riley, played by Jared Scott are along for the ride as they dabble in party occult tricks. Soon, like every good ghost hunter, the three have rigged the room, prepared for what they are sure will be the manifestation of a spirit.

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As they wait, unsure of how to call the spirit from its dormant resting place the teens are smoking pot, and swapping stories of fantasies not yet realized. They are also talking about Dallas' dad, an Air Force pilot who disappeared never to be seen again. The trauma of this event has caused a rift in his home life and while he appears together, he is held together, at this point, by the mission and his belief that it is his duty to find out what happened to his dad.  

Half a joint into the ghost hunting event, the trio of high school friends decide to go for it and suddenly they are alive with effort to pull the spirit from its resting place. It arrives and just like in the movies, our brave ghost hunters freak out, flipping over the furniture, running from the manifestation, snapping pictures, and hoping they were able to capture the seemingly impossible.

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As Dallas arrives home, his dad's Air Force best friend Sgt. Myers, played by Casper Van Dien, is at the house under false pretenses. It isn't until we see him attempting to go through a box of personal items in the garage that we realize he is not all that he appears, and something is amiss.

After discovering research left behind by a missing government agent, Dallas decides to visit Sgt. Myers and after he looks at the folder, he takes it and locks it up. Dallas realizes something is off, creepy, about the way he acted so the prize he also found, an alien GPS, he decides to hold onto.

Soon he and his misfit high school friends, along with a new "random" girl he meets, Meg, played by Camille Kostek, embark on a determined, righteous, and dangerous adventure to uncover a paranormal conspiracy in Southern California that brings them face-to-face with some of the government's most guarded mysteries. Along the way they also meet Dr. Walker, played by Richard Kind, who aids them on the adventure of their lifetime.

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Filled with a collection of science myths all hid by the government, Monsters of California, is a sci-fi fantasy smorgasbord, with ghost hunters, mysterious disappearances, a carnivorous Big Foot, aliens arriving in a rainbow haze over the desert, and of course captured and kept aliens behind hidden doors.

Monsters of California, a laugh out loud, fun filled, coming of age alien conspiracy film, is in theaters in select cities. Check local listings. Monsters of California can also be seen On Demand. See it!

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Country: U.S.

Language: English.

Runtime: 109 minutes.

Director: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge.

Producer: Stan Spry, Eric Scott Woods, Tom DeLonge.

Writer: Tom DeLonge, Ian Miller, Ben Kull.

Cast: Jack Samson, Jared Scott, Jack Lancaster, Casper Van Dien, Camille Kostek, Richard Kind, Arianne Zucker.