Thirty-One Days O’Horror: Monster Man (2003)

Let’s Ride #23!

2003’s Monster Man is a film that left me full of mixed feelings. The bulk of the film isn’t that great. It’s littered with bad, sophomoric jokes, most of which are delivered by Justin Urich as Harley, who comes off as a blend of every single stereotypical fun-loving jerk who the viewer ultimately grows to love……except I can’t stand Harley at all. If the intent was for the viewer to be repulsed by the character, mission accomplished. If he’s just meant to be the funny sidekick, writer/director Michael Davis totally missed the boat. The climax of the film which, oddly enough, has a considerable amount of Harley-less time, is very, very good. It manages to deliver decent action mixed with a heaping helping of absurd and grotesque humor. If only the rest of the film were as good as the climax.

The film stars Eric Jungmann as Adam, a virgin driving across country hoping to stop the wedding of the woman that he loves. He’s a lot like Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland. He’s awkward, eclectic, and has a ton of useful items in his seemingly bottomless fanny packs. Riding along with him is the previously mentioned Harley, who manages to sabotage pretty much everything that Adam attempts on the drive. Harley also loves drawing the wrong types of attention to himself and Adam. He’s a jerk, plain and simple. The duo are terrorized by a monster truck and haunted by a hearse on the drive. They eventually pick up a lovely hitchhiker named Sarah (Aimee Brooks), who falls for Adam.

The monster truck is driven by the titular Monster Man (Michael Bailey Smith), who rams Adam’s car, attempts to attack him in a restroom, leaves dead animals in Adam and Harley’s bed, and stuffs a human body in their car. This is just a few of the things that he does to the young men and Sarah. Things come to a head whenever the Monster Man captures Sarah and all is revealed in an amazing sequence at the climax of the film. Of course, Harley does eventually show up to ruin everything but for a few moments, Monster Man is really impressive.

Is Monster Man worth a look? Yeah, I guess. It is pretty cool that Michael Bailey Smith portrayed Ben Grimm in the Roger Corman Fantastic Four film from 1994. I highly recommend checking that film out if you can dig it up online or on a bootleg DVD. The cast, excepting Urich, do great jobs. The makeup and effects are very good as well. Overall, this film could have been much better, especially if it leaned more into the horror and left out a lot of the comedy.

Thanks for checking out my review!