In a world filled with monsters the 5% of the Earths population that have survived live underground in bunkers. But after seven years of searching for his girlfriend via the radio, Joel (Dylan O’Brien) discovers she is only 85 miles away and decides to make the perilous journey to her colony. 

Love and Monsters is an old fashioned family adventure movie that will provide thrills and spills for slightly older children whilst keeping their parents suitably entertained at the same time. 

Straight away the set up is slightly different and fun. When faced with a cataclysmic life ending asteroid the world did what it does best and destroyed it with lots of missiles. Unfortunately the toxic debris from those missiles has mutated animal life on Earth and it promptly set about eating the human race instead. The film makers know to introduce each threat slowly so the audience can guess what mutated creature is on the attack each time. 

When Joel is introduced to us he is not the best at monster hunting. But on his journey he will meet faithful dog “Boy” and fellow survivors Clyde (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt) who will teach him some golden rules for survival. As well as some life lessons of course. And of course there are some twists along the way. 

I really enjoyed my time with this film. It was great fun to watch with my kids who loved the dog, were scared just the right amount and loved guessing what was going to happen next. Dylan O’Brien has a lot of charisma as the initially clueless Joel and Michael Rooker does exactly what you expect him to as the irascible but wise teacher. 

Lots of fun.