Monster Summer (2024), directed by David Henrie, stars Mason Thames, Mel Gibson, Kevin James, Patrick Renna, Abby James Witherspoon, Noah Cottrell, Julian Lerner, Lilah Pate, Kelly Collins Lintz, Barbara Goodson, and Lorraine Bracco. The film follows Noah (Thames), a teenager living in a small coastal town who dreams of being a big-city reporter. As summer vacation begins, various kids around town begin to go missing but then show up days later acting distant and strange. Noah soon becomes convinced that a sinister entity is threatening his hometown and enlists the help of the local recluse, Gene (Gibson), to solve the mystery and save the day. 

After his work in The Black Phone (2021), Mason Thames proves yet again that he’s one of the best young actors working in Hollywood. Mel Gibson is fun to see as well even though his character is woefully unoriginal. He plays the town’s reclusive ex-sheriff who isn’t all that bad of a guy once you get to know him. It’s not just the fact that I’ve seen this character before, but the fact that I’ve seen this character in this kind of movie before. Patrick Renna is also featured in what is (in my opinion) one of the most satisfying cameos I’ve seen in a while. The movie often incorporates baseball and seeing Renna as the town umpire immediately makes audiences of a certain age yell “It’s The Great Hambino!!” referencing his iconic role in The Sandlot (1993). The problem is that the remainder of the supporting cast is either forgettable or downright bad. When you have a film featuring this many child actors, it’s only inevitable that some of them won’t be up to the task, but it also doesn’t help that their characters are often written to be boring caricatures that aren’t very believable. Imagine Stranger Things, but lacking the wonderful character development that consistently reframes the character’s initially traditional archetypes. This results in certain elements such as the “teen romance” portion of the film falling completely flat because nothing feels genuine or nuanced. 

Tonally, something is appealing about the combination of Halloween, baseball, and classical monsters. It results in a nostalgic and comparatively lighter tone than most films in the genre and that feels like the intention. I would criticize the movie for not being scary in any sense of the word, but again, that seems to be the intention. Similar to movies like Night of the Creeps (1986) and The Monster Squad (1987), this takes a much more fun-centered approach to its Halloween setting. It’s often too goofy to be scary, but it’s decently fun and doesn’t overstay its welcome at 90 minutes long.

For better or worse, this plays like an elevated version of a 2000s, Halloween-set Disney Channel movie. I think this works considering the nature of the material, but I’m not surprised considering that this is directed by David Henrie who starred for years in Disney Channel’s The Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-2012). His direction is a mixed bag in the sense that he clearly has strong inspiration (and good taste in those inspirations) but also shows the telltale signs of a rookie director. The period in which the story is set is consistently confusing; I still don’t know if it takes place in the modern-day or the 70s/80s. Besides one effective twist, he also struggles to find anything new for this style of movie. The script often feels desperate to find something unique in its material, eventually forcing an ending that focuses on a character we care little about. On top of all this, characters often act and speak unintelligently for the sake of goofiness/comedy. There’s nothing wrong with injecting comedy, but when it comes at the expense of character likability, it just ends up hurting the experience. 

Overall, this a pretty forgettable horror-lite Halloween movie that might appeal to younger audiences, but will most likely bore everyone else. Thankfully, it’s a quick experience that feels like it was released at the right time of year. Not terrible, but you most likely won’t hear me reference it ever again. C