In Monitor, rising scream queen Brittany O\u2019Grady (It\u2019s What\u2019s Inside<\/a>) stars as Maggie, a young woman who works in a remote office for a YouTube-esque company as a moderator, eliminating the most vile internet content before it gets online. Imagine the worst things anyone could post, and that\u2019s what she sees day to day, but she and her tight-knit group of fellow moderators have built a surrogate family, where the most senior moderator, Sara Alexander\u2019s Claudia, says they serve a higher purpose. Of course, they all toil for minimum wage, while Maggie grows increasingly disturbed that, under the company\u2019s policy, she\u2019s unable to report submitted content to the police (it\u2019s a real discussion going on right now about the responsibilities companies like YouTube or OpenAI have).<\/p>\n Maggie receives a weird, surreal video she struggles to describe but feels inclined to delete, inadvertently unleashing hell on her and her colleagues. The video seems to contain the spirit of a malevolent \u201ctulpa,\u201d a being able to materialize if enough people believe in it \u2014 hence the video, which it wants to get out into the real world. One by one, Maggie\u2019s friends start to suffer from violent attacks, mobilizing them to try and stop this entity in its tracks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a slick feature debut for directors Matt Black and Ryan Polly, with it based on their own short. Shot in 2.35:1 scope and looking like it has a relatively healthy budget, it feels like it\u2019s aimed squarely at mainstream horror audiences, with lots of gore and some gnarly scares. The imagery used to depict the tulpa is upsetting, and the premiere screening at SXSW was filled with people who screamed at a few of the film\u2019s more unsettling jump scares.<\/p>\n O\u2019Grady is a likeable heroine, with her given a convincing backstory where her sister committed suicide after becoming a victim of the very worst the internet has to offer. She\u2019s well supported by the maternal Alexander, while One Piece\u2019s Taz Skylar plays her not wholly unsympathetic but duplicitous boss. Perhaps the most effective performance comes from Gunnar Willis as a jovial, nice-guy colleague who undergoes a horrifically transformative experience with the tulpa, showing real gravitas as the film reaches its conclusion.<\/p>\n Stylistically, it has some nice touches, including the effective use of clips from Mary Martin\u2019s\u00a0Peter Pan, which ties into the film\u2019s premise \u2014 that a shared delusion can make something imaginary feel very real. While it\u2019s not high-end arthouse horror in the A24<\/a> vein, the meat-and-potatoes aspect is actually refreshing and should find it many fans once it picks up distribution. With the right handling, this could be a franchise.<\/p>\n \n Subscribe to our weekly newsletter\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/monitor-movie-1024x538.jpg\")
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