Tagline: "Love can be a beast."
Director: Caroline Lindy
Release Year: 2024
Runtime: 104 min
Streaming Platforms:
Plot Summary: After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actress Laura Franco finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming, monster living in her closet.
Holidays:
Laura Franco is a young actress enduring a cancer diagnosis. She tries to cope after being dumped by her playwright boyfriend Jacob Sullivan, whose play she helped him write prior to their split.
Her friend Mazie drives Laura to her childhood home, where she is forced to live following the break-up. During her stay, she hears noises and discovers a monster in the house, living in the closet upstairs. Though initially frightened by him and his demands for her to move out, Laura and Monster bond over their shared love of theater, and Monster agrees to let her stay for two weeks.
Monster convinces Laura to show up for auditions to Jacob's play, particularly for the main role which Jacob originally wrote for Laura to star as. Jacob refuses to cast her, instead choosing another actress named Jackie Dennon, but offers Laura to understudy for Jackie instead. Laura struggles to watch Jacob and Jackie's apparent flirtations during rehearsals, but finds solace at home with Monster. Laura invites him to a Halloween party hosted by the theater. He refuses, but arrives later and dances with Laura among the other partygoers, but their fun is cut short when Laura discovers Jacob engaging in sexual activity with a woman, presumably Jackie. Using his powers, Monster distracts Jacob towards a nearby trapdoor that opens and drops him to the floor below, injuring his arm.
Laura excoriates Monster for what happened, but he convinces her that Jacob breaking up with her amidst her cancer treatment was not okay. They return to the house to make love. At another rehearsal, Jackie learns from a castmate about Jacob and Laura's past. She later struggles to perform on stage and is berated by Jacob, but Laura comes to her defense, unloading all of her resentment towards Jacob for their break-up. Laura meets Jacob that evening to discuss what happened. They hook up in his office, but Jacob breaks the news that Laura has been removed from the production.
Laura returns home to find Monster in the closet. She discovers his hidden home, filled with articles of her clothes and other items taken over the years. She reveals the hook-up to Monster, angering him greatly, but she accuses him of not knowing anything about love because he's a monster and he's always been hiding. Monster reveals he hasn't been hiding, recounting other occasions during Laura's life when he tried to help her but she barred him in the closet out of fear. Laura leaves and shuts the closet, but opens it again out of regret, only to find that Monster has disappeared.
Following a hospital visit, Laura is declared cancer-free but she does not delight in the news. Jackie meets Laura outside her home to apologize for "stealing" Jacob, but Laura shrugs it off and says that people hook up. Jackie clarifies that she and Jacob have never had relations, and arranges for Laura to take her place as lead role in the play's premiere. While sneaking into the building, Laura catches Jacob and Mazie having sex. Mazie follows Laura to the dressing room to apologize, but Laura tells her to leave.
Laura appears on stage and performs, to Jacob's shock and rage. Her performance receives positive reception from the audience, but Jacob confronts her alone behind the curtains, accusing her of jealousy and selfishness. Monster then appears from the shadows and tears Jacob's throat open, after which the curtains open and a bloodstained Laura performs the final song. At the end, Monster is absent from the stage, revealing that he is actually Laura’s inner “monster” and never truly existed. The crowd panics over the sight of Jacob’s corpse as Laura smiles and lets out a monstrous growl.