MONSTER SUMMER is a teenage horror movie in the tradition of GOONIES. Noah is a young teenager living 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 teenager girl and gets attacked by someone under the water and turns into a zombie. Noah recruits two of his friends to investigate what’s happening. He eventually finds out that Old Man Carruthers, played by Mel Gibson, is a former police detective 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 whom Noah thinks us a witch.

In many ways, MONSTER SUMMER is very clean with no overt sex and almost no foul language. There are also Christian symbols and allusions. However, the movie reveals frightening things about witches, especially their ability to appear as normal next-door neighbors. Also, the final showdown with the witch is extremely scary. Therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® recommends caution for younger teenagers.

(Pa, BB, CC, OO, L, V, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed worldview with a moral ending as well as Christian symbols throughout with lots of focus on witches, who seem incredibly versatile and strong, but the good guys eventually win;

Foul Language:

Two obscenities;

Violence:

Lots of scary violence though not bloody where an offscreen witch sucks the souls out of young people, sometimes in the water, sometimes in the woods and sometimes beside an old station wagon, which leaves the people as zombies, eventually a showdown with the witch concludes with strong violence where the witch attacks a man and three teenagers, and a character is shot several times;

Sex:

No sex (some light kissing);

Nudity:

No nudity;

Alcohol Use:

No alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Man cracks frightening jokes, trespassing, lying, but all rebuked.

MONSTER SUMMER is a teenage horror movie in the tradition of GOONIES. The movie, which stars, Mel Gibson commends the search for truth and has good triumphs over evil, but the witch is very scary for many reasons, including its ability to appear as an ordinary person. So, the witch causes the viewer to be scared of everybody.

Noah is a young teenager living 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.

The movie opens with Noah being suspicious of Old Man Carruthers, whose son disappeared. Noah has written several articles about disappearing children, but the local editor doesn’t want bad news about Martha’s Vineyard. Noah’s friend, Ben, goes swimming with a teenager girl and gets attacked by someone under the water and turns into a zombie. Noah recruits two of his friends to investigate what’s happening. He eventually finds out that Gene Carruthers, played by Mel Gibson, is former police detective who left the force to search for the man who kidnapped his young son.

With Gene’s help, Noah and his friends search for the perpetrator whom Noah thinks us a witch. In fact, he thinks the witch is a woman who’s come to room in his mother’s house for the summer, but in an embarrassing reveal, this turns out to be false.

Eventually, other kids get taken and turned into zombies. Gene has mapped New England towns where other kids turned into zombies, and now only Noah can find out whodunnit. However, the witch is hot on Noah and his friends’ trail. The showdown between them is very scary. Who will survive?

In many ways, MONSTER SUMMER is very clean with no overt sex and almost no foul language. There are also Christian symbols and allusions. However, the movie reveals frightening things about witches, especially their ability to appear as normal next-door neighbors. Also, the final showdown is extremely scary.

This problem could have been alleviated with a little more humor and some judicious editing of the violent showdown. The jeopardy was strong enough that it didn’t need the prolonged showdown to hold the viewer’s attention. Furthermore, it would have been nice if there was more Christianity in the final showdown like the movie THE CONJURING.

Therefore, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger teenagers.