1
starflakes
U.S.
Your Run of the Mill Supernatural Show
Monstrous is a 2022 supernatural k-drama with short episodes. It follows a town that plunges into mania after digging up an evil Buddah statue that enchants people with it's eyes - driving them to madness and bloodshed.
I'll spare this show a long review because I wasn't even planning on initially writing one, since this show isn't particularly stand out in either the good or bad sense. I've been excited for this show since it was first announced, especially since both the plot and cast were appealing to me, and although it failed to deliver, I didn't feel necessarily disappointed. Perhaps it was because I looked at other people's reviews beforehand, but I feel like you get exactly what you expect with this drama.
The plot is pretty average when it comes to "zombie-esque" shows, although it does bear a striking resemblance to OCN's 2021 show "Dark Hole". You have all your typical characters - the ML with family issues, a police officer, a morally righteous teenager, an overly violent man who's all too happy with the situation etc... There's nothing particularly wrong with having cliched characters in a drama, but they have to be done right. Unfortunately the fact this drama is so short means that this doesn't happen.
It's also a waste of great actors. I was so excited to see Kwak Dong Yeon, as well as Nam Da Reum in a leading role (rather than a child actor one), and they do the best with what they're given, all the actors do, but what they're given isn't a lot. Honestly something about Shin Hyun Bin's acting bothered me, but I think that's less her fault, and more because her character spent practically the whole drama just kinda writhing around on the ground.
Really the drama lacks a lot of substance in every way that isn't violence. It has *a lot* of gore, which I wont hold against it since that's to be expected of this type of show, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart.
But the only reason, and I mean only, reason that I am writing this review instead of just rating it and moving on is because of the sound design. Oh my god it's awful. Not the music, the music is fine, but the sound design itself. They use that generic, canned crowd gasp sound (the one that is literally called "THAT crowd gasp" when you search YouTube), whenever there's a group of people together that's shocked at something, which is very often. It completely takes you out of the show. Breaking realism is one thing, but I found myself laughing every time I heard it, which I feel is not something you want in a dark fiction show.
Overall this show is fine. It's not the most brilliant thing to watch, but it's not downright awful either. I definitely wish it had been better, especially because these actors are all capable of handling far better scripts, but I wasn't that upset that it didn't turn out to be amazing. I'd say it's a good filler drama for when you just need something short and "meh" in-between other drama watches. Still can't get over the sound editing tho lol.
I'll spare this show a long review because I wasn't even planning on initially writing one, since this show isn't particularly stand out in either the good or bad sense. I've been excited for this show since it was first announced, especially since both the plot and cast were appealing to me, and although it failed to deliver, I didn't feel necessarily disappointed. Perhaps it was because I looked at other people's reviews beforehand, but I feel like you get exactly what you expect with this drama.
The plot is pretty average when it comes to "zombie-esque" shows, although it does bear a striking resemblance to OCN's 2021 show "Dark Hole". You have all your typical characters - the ML with family issues, a police officer, a morally righteous teenager, an overly violent man who's all too happy with the situation etc... There's nothing particularly wrong with having cliched characters in a drama, but they have to be done right. Unfortunately the fact this drama is so short means that this doesn't happen.
It's also a waste of great actors. I was so excited to see Kwak Dong Yeon, as well as Nam Da Reum in a leading role (rather than a child actor one), and they do the best with what they're given, all the actors do, but what they're given isn't a lot. Honestly something about Shin Hyun Bin's acting bothered me, but I think that's less her fault, and more because her character spent practically the whole drama just kinda writhing around on the ground.
Really the drama lacks a lot of substance in every way that isn't violence. It has *a lot* of gore, which I wont hold against it since that's to be expected of this type of show, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart.
But the only reason, and I mean only, reason that I am writing this review instead of just rating it and moving on is because of the sound design. Oh my god it's awful. Not the music, the music is fine, but the sound design itself. They use that generic, canned crowd gasp sound (the one that is literally called "THAT crowd gasp" when you search YouTube), whenever there's a group of people together that's shocked at something, which is very often. It completely takes you out of the show. Breaking realism is one thing, but I found myself laughing every time I heard it, which I feel is not something you want in a dark fiction show.
Overall this show is fine. It's not the most brilliant thing to watch, but it's not downright awful either. I definitely wish it had been better, especially because these actors are all capable of handling far better scripts, but I wasn't that upset that it didn't turn out to be amazing. I'd say it's a good filler drama for when you just need something short and "meh" in-between other drama watches. Still can't get over the sound editing tho lol.
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