‘MONSTER SUMMER’ director says film will scare, not scar

Published: October 7, 2024

‘MONSTER SUMMER’ director says film will scare, not scar

Movieguide® contributor

Director and actor David Henrie shares his goals for MONSTER SUMMER, a spooky film that will scare in an entertaining way but won’t leave any scars.

“You said something like ‘really great’ on Instagram when you were talking about ‘MONSTER SUMMER’ and you said that you wanted to make a film that was like a carefree scary movie for the whole family because we “I can’t remember having films like that,” an interviewer told Henrie on “The Hashtag Show” on October 1st.

“It was a great time, you know,” Henrie said. “It reminded me of my childhood. When I finished the script, I felt like I was a little boy watching movies with my father. I would get my popcorn, my bite of crunch, my soda and go to the movies with him and it was always a wonderful experience and there were a lot of movies that were scary but didn’t leave any scars and I wanted to recreate that – something that might be scary but doesn’t leave scars and, you know.”

These are not “empty fears”, but they have a reason.

“It’s like the whole point of the horror genre is to show you that you should face your fears and that you can overcome them, and so I tried to capture a lot of that,” he said. “I was very adamant from the beginning that this was a scary, funny family film, but there’s a point in that. There are lessons to be learned and both parents and children can learn something from this story.”

An excerpt from Movieguide®’s review of the film reads:

MONSTER SUMMER is a teen horror film in the tradition of the GOONIES. Noah is a young teenager who lives on Martha’s Vineyard with his mother, who runs a boarding house. Noah’s father was a journalist but died. So Noah wants to be a journalist. Noah’s friend Ben goes swimming with a teenage girl, is attacked by someone underwater and turns into a zombie. Noah recruits two of his friends to investigate what is happening. Eventually he finds out that Old Man Carruthers, played by Mel Gibson, is a former police officer who left the force to search for the man who kidnapped his young son. With his help, Noah and his friends search for the perpetrator, who Noah believes is a witch.

In many ways, MONSTER SUMMER is very straightforward, with no overt sex and almost no swear words. There are also Christian symbols and allusions. However, the film reveals frightening things about witches, particularly their ability to act as normal next-door neighbors. The final showdown with the witch is also extremely scary. That’s why MOVIEGUIDE® recommends caution to younger teenagers.

To test whether a scene had too much fear factor, Henrie trusted his gut feeling.

“I’m a big scaredy cat and if it had scared me too much I wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “So it was fear, not a scar. I definitely want some fun jump scares, you know.”

Henrie remained intentional throughout and never felt like he was pushing the fear too far.

“We have carried out test screenings for this. There are some great jump scares, but laughter immediately follows. They say, “I can’t believe I just jumped into something like that.” So yeah, I didn’t want to do something that I think would cross people’s minds, and I wanted the ending to be like that What is memorable is that it would be victorious in the end. That it would dwarf everything we just went through.”

By casting Mel Gibson, Henrie found the perfect fit for Gene.

“It seemed a bit like his character Riggs, a bit LETHAL WEAPON… He just seemed like the right role for me,” Henrie said. “I had also seen some interviews with him before the film where he had this kind of beard and looked a little shaggy, and I thought that’s exactly what we’re looking for in this character.”

“He immediately understood that this was Mel, and his character has this wonderful kind of pessimism at the beginning, but that’s contrasted by the boy, who’s an optimist, and they have this great two-handed relationship throughout the film, you know, he loved it because he hadn’t done a family film since Pocahontas.”

Gibson, whose last role was in the R-rated film “Desperation Road,” greatly enjoyed working with his much younger comrades.

“He just had a lot of fun,” Henrie said. “He was like, ‘I’m going to be a kid again in this movie.’ So we had a really good time and I think that reflects on the screen. He gives a great performance.”

The children’s cast – Noah Cottrell, Mason Thames, Abby James Witherspoon and Julian Lerner – also had a great time on set and delivered wonderful performances.

“Having grown up as a child actor myself, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly of stage culture, and I really wanted a fun atmosphere where they could feel like they were kids and they didn’t feel like to be, I don’t know, beaten into submission or something like that [that]said Henrie. “If you can create a sporty, fun atmosphere for them, [they’re] like, “Okay, we’re here.” We have to show up. We have to work hard.’”

It’s “a bit like a sport, but it’s not the end of the world, you know?” You’re free to make mistakes. They have a good atmosphere and we had that atmosphere on set.”

Each of the children blessed Henrie in different ways.

“If you don’t have fun, enjoy it and count your blessings, what are we going to do?” he said. “They reminded me of that when I worked with them. They all just have such wonderful smiles and personalities and they all really touched me in a positive way.”

“The children really liked a lot of combinations and wanted to try them all out [own stunts]. Like Noah Cottrell had to do some stuff in the water that was bad, and we had this whole water tank and rigs and stunt people, and he did it, man. He did it.”

MONSTER SUMMER has been in theaters across the United States since October 4th.