Movies
I Genuinely Want to See ‘Monster Trucks’ and Here’s Why
This looks F-U-N. And we need more movies like this.
As I’m sure you’ve heard, or maybe you haven’t, there’s a movie coming out on January 13th called Monster Trucks. It’s literally about… monsters that live inside of… trucks… and it’s already become the laughing stock of the internet movie scene. It’s a mega-budget film that seems destined to be an epic bomb… but as I sit here right now, I must tell you that I’m excited to see it.
The trailer for Monster Trucks hit the net last year and I’ve gotta say, I kind of fell in love with it pretty quickly. The film centers on Creech, one of those truck monsters, who appears to be some kind of giant dolphin-octopus creature. He looks like Sharktopus, really. A friendly Sharktopus. Who happens to be stuck inside of a truck. Do you get it? It’s a monster truck. Like for real.
Okay look. This shit is ridiculous and absurd and that’s EXACTLY WHY I’M SO HAPPY IT EXISTS. Monster Trucks immediately struck me as the kind of movie I would have LOVED as a kid; the kind of movie that would either spawn the coolest toy line ever or would be spawned from the coolest toy line ever. I’d probably have even collected all the Happy Meal trucks, because you just know McDonald’s would’ve been all over this shit back in the ’80s. We all would’ve been. And though I may be 30-years-old here in 2016, I’m still a kid at heart. And I still want this shit.
I need to stop calling this movie ‘shit.’ I mean it could be. But I’ll probably love it all the same.
On a more serious note, I do believe that the world needs more movies like Monster Trucks. What do I mean when I say that? I mean that kid-friendly, original monster movies have mostly fallen by the wayside in recent years, and that makes me sadder for the kids of today than for myself… and I’m pretty damn sad about it. Yes, Monster Trucks could turn out to be a pile of shit, but judging from the trailer, it looks like a whole lot of fun. It also looks to be loaded with charm, which is another thing absent from the movies of today. And perhaps best of all, it’s live-action. Well, as live-action as a movie about computer-generated monsters can be.
Movies aimed at younger audiences have become almost entirely animated these days, and there’s just something about a live-action monster movie, NOT based on an existing property, that puts a smile on my face. If nothing more, Monster Trucks looks like the kind of movie that the kids of today will look back fondly on decades from now. Maybe it’ll even be the movie that makes some kids interested in monsters. Maybe they’ll seek out films like Gremlins, ET, and The Gate afterwords. Maybe they’ll smile 30 years from now when they rediscover their Creech toy.
And maybe you’ll feel like a kid again while you watch it.
I’ll be ready and willing to accept that feeling on January 13th.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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