By Brian Myers
| Published
The movie Monolith premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in Australia in the fall of 2022, but it took time for it to gain traction with fans across the globe. The film wasn’t seen again until March 2023, when it made its international debut at the SXSW Film Festival. This set off a flurry of film festival entries across the world, reaching diverse audiences and helping to generate a slow burn of appeal that has turned it into a cult hit.
The Interviewer And The Brick
Monolith centers around a character referred to only as the Interviewer, as she tries to revive a once-successful career as a journalist. From her parents’ basement, she begins to develop and produce a podcast that focuses on unsolved mysteries and crimes. To generate listenership, she opens up the format so that her audience members can call in and reveal their strange experiences.
After several listeners reveal the presence of a mysterious black brick in their lives, viewers are introduced to a German art collector who has amassed a collection of these black bricks, including one the Interviewer has an eerie connection with. The Monolith movie digs deeper as the Interviewer’s mental health seems to decline over the course of the film, providing a mechanism to thrill audiences with gripping psychological horror.
Monolith Didn’t Receive A Wide Box Office Release
Monolith was acquired for sale by XYZ in the United States and Blue Finch Films in the United Kingdom. While Blue Finch Films is handling the international distribution as well, this task was assigned to Well Go USA Entertainment in the North American market. Though the box office returns in both Australia and abroad have been scant, as they typically are in film festival releases, there are plenty of reasons for filmmakers to be optimistic about the film’s successes in the immediate future as it gains cult status.
Audience And Critical Reception Of Monolith
Monolith (2024), directed by Matt Vesely, has garnered a generally positive critical reception. The film holds an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 56 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The audience score, however, is slightly lower at 57%, based on over 100 user ratings. On IMDb, the film has a user rating of 6.9/10.
