Your Monster is a 2024 Romantic Comedy Horror movie which debuted at Sundance and was written and directed by Caroline Lindy. It's based on her short film of the same name from 2020.
Laura Franco's (Melissa Barrera) life falls apart after she'd diagnosed with cancer and dumped by her boyfriend, the Broadway producer Jacob (Edmund Donovan), who also takes away the role of Lori he'd promised to give her in his new musical. Laura retreats to her childhood home and is throwing herself a pity party when she's surprised by the monster from under her bed and inside her closet (Tommy Dewey), who turns out to be a bit of a thespian himself. Laura begins to bond with the surprisingly charming Monster while also attempting to salvage her career and position in Jacob's show, but her complicated feelings for both Jacob and Monster; her rivalry with the famous actress Jackie Dennon (Meghann Fahy), who took the role of Lori in her stead; and her difficulties with her best friend Mazie (Kayla Foster), who's also got a role in the show, cause an increasing number of problems.
Tropes:
- All Part of the Show: When the curtain rises to reveal the bloodstained Laura in front of Jacob's corpse, audience members begin questioning whether the scene is just part of the show or an actual disaster.
- Ambiguous Situation: The question of whether Monster was ever real or if he was just a hallucination (or split personality) of Laura. Nobody ever reacts to Monster's presence besides Laura, and the two times he had an impact on the wider world (dropping Jacob through the trapdoor and then at the very end) were both instances where Laura was right there and could have taken his actions herself.
- Bad "Bad Acting": After Jackie finds out the truth of what's been going on behind the scenes, she becomes largely unable to play the role of Lori, just stumbling through the lines in a bland and deadpan manner instead of emoting properly.
- Based on a True Story: The writer and director of the movie, Caroline Lindy, has confirmed the plot is based in part on an instance when she was cruelly dumped after being diagnosed with cancer.
- Blood Is the New Black: Laura ends her performance on opening night covered in Jacob's blood.
- Hypocrite: Jacob's play is purportedly a celebration of feminist women who use their power to overcome the obstacles society puts in their path. The little we see of it is set at a finishing school where girls are made to act a certain way and where the heroic protagonist begins defying the rules of the male authority figures. But in his real life, Jacob is a petty and abusive man who exploits the women around him for whatever he can get and then drops them once they become inconvenient.
- It's All About Me: Jacob takes several actions which destroy Laura's life, including dumping her right after she'd diagnosed with cancer because he doesn't want to be a caretaker, giving Laura's role of Lori to Jackie, and then sleeping with Laura later only to immediately fire her from her (reduced) role as Jackie's understudy. Yet when Laura shows upon opening night and substitutes herself for Jackie, Jacob's response is to disregard all of her complaints against him and panic that his debut is being jeopardized.
- Nice Girl: Despite being built up as Laura's privileged rival, Jackie turns out to be a genuinely sweet person who truly had no idea that Jacob had promised her role to Laura before ripping it away. She even agrees to let Laura take over the role during opening night.
- Redheads Are Ravishing: Played straight with Mazie, whom Jacob is attracted to and sleeps with.
- Slashed Throat: After Jacob confronts Laura backstage during the opening night performance and then Monster shows up, Jacob is killed when his throat is torn out. It's left ambiguous whether Monster killed him or whether Laura was hallucinating Monster and did it herself.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Mazie talks herself up as being a fantastic friend, but she only ever does the bare minimum for Laura, such as by picking her up from the airport and taking her home only to immediately abandon her (despite pledging to be there for her). She even sleeps with Jacob despite knowing how that could destroy Laura. When confronted on this, her response is an indignant whine that Laura has no other friends and so should be thrilled with whatever attention and concern Mazie deigns to give her.
- You Sexy Beast: Tommy Dewey portrays Monster as a charming, affable, and sexy figure whom Laura is quickly attracted to. Sure enough, they end up sleeping together, though the ending makes it unclear how much of that (and the Monster's presence in general) was real.
- Your Cheating Heart: While Laura is no longer dating Jacob by the end of the story, she still reacts this way upon learning that her 'friend' Mazie was sleeping with him.
