Monster Tapes

Cast View all

	Jacob Bulmer	Soldier 12
	Charlie Burts	Vince
	Kyle Crary	Soldier 3
	Peter De Mark	Lab Executive
	Brooke Friendly	Military Captain
	Tyler Henize	Soldier 7
	Luke Herbel	Soldier 13
	Michael Kahwaty	Platoon Leader
	Nigel Lane	Commander
	Vincent Marvelli	Brick
	Greg McTiernan	Soldier 4
	Adam Morgan	Soldier 10
	Shane Redding	Soldier 9
	Alexander Rowles	Soldier 8
	Sal Santorelli	Soldier 6
	Shawn Sharp	Josh Thomas
	Scott Travis	Soldier #5
	Ashley Hays Wright	Heather
	Cadence Wright	Amy
	David Owen Wright	Father
	Jaina Wright	Ash
	Scout Wright	Liv

Crew View all

Director	Ashley Hays Wright
Writer	David Owen Wright
Producer	David Owen Wright
Musician	David Owen Wright, Scout Wright
Photography	David Owen Wright

Trailer

Edition details

Personal

Notes

My quick rating - 2.4/10. After a blogger’s monster video goes viral, he vanishes into the wilderness, leaving behind only his shaky handi-cam legacy. Naturally, two amateur mythbusters decide to investigate and prove that “The Hollowed One” is just another online hoax. Unfortunately for us, that also means enduring their acting for the next hour of Monster Tapes.

We kick things off with some of the most aggressively high-school-looking performances I’ve seen this year. The first few minutes feel like an improv exercise gone rogue, complete with the kind of dialogue that makes you wonder if the script was printed on napkins. Our fearless debunkers are camping in a tent roughly the size of a laundry hamper, and somehow emerge the next morning with perfect hair and clean clothes. Sure, Jan.

One girl even dons a Rambo-style bandana, ready to face evil — or maybe just mosquitoes. Before long, soldiers appear out of nowhere, supposedly there to hunt the monster (and possibly the girls, because why not?). Toss in some random hunters for good measure, and suddenly we’re knee-deep in a chaotic forest free-for-all. By the time the monster actually attacks, it’s like everyone forgot which movie they were in.

And yet… I have to give a little credit where it’s due. The editing during the attack scenes is oddly creative — chaotic, yes, but interesting. The monster fight choreography looks like a lost TikTok dance trend, but at least it’s trying. The director, Ashley Hays Wright, seems to have a spark of visual ambition buried somewhere beneath all the confusion. The use of miniatures mixed with CGI hints that someone on this crew actually cared.

At just 61 minutes, Monster Tapes doesn’t overstay its welcome — though it does test your patience. It’s one of those rare cases where the film is bad on nearly every level, but you can still sense a tiny glimmer of potential trying to claw its way out of the carnage. If Wright ever wrangles the madness into something coherent, we might get a decent B-movie someday.

For now, Monster Tapes is an endearingly awful, unintentionally funny monster mash that is definitely circling the coop of the #turkey pile.

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